


The Other Stackhouse

by Bryn_Myrddin



Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, FIx It, Fae & Fairies, Fae Magic, Godric Lives, How Do I Tag, I hope?, Idiots in Love, Maybe - Freeform, Multi, OOC, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Possessive Eric, Realistic, Self-Insert, Sex, What Was I Thinking?, Women Being Awesome, a little bit, but not for long, fuck being a lady, godric is confused, not really - Freeform, ok a lot, poor baby, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-06-09 13:33:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 47,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6909478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bryn_Myrddin/pseuds/Bryn_Myrddin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was on Fanfiction, but I'm posting it here.  What if Sookie had a sister that had a clue (but she had to be re-born to do so) a more down to earth and... annoyed approach to True Blood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I'm only just reposting the prologue, this might change again...

This will be the longest Author Note ever:

OK guys, I read a shit ton of fanfiction, but I usually don't write anything, however I have given into the temptation of trying my hand at an SI/OC story in a fandom that I think could kinda benefit from one.

So yeah, Another Stackhouse is going to feature an SI/OC as another Stackhouse sister who will maybe make the narration a bit more bearable, I mean, I love the Trueblood books and TV show, but I find I can't stand Sookie for the most part. Sometimes she's ok and honestly I find her to be a very good character for a southern Gothic, but I find that grating for my Northeastern and Educated sensibilities. This is in no way trying to insult anyone who identifies with Sookie, just stating that FOR ME, I really can't stand a lot of things about her character.

So yes, this will be an Eric/OC story because Sookie and Eric would never work out unless her personality does a 180 flip (seriously every good fanfiction with them involves her having a radical shift in perspective). This is my answer to that, I write this really for myself, but I hope you enjoy it as well.

Being reborn was not something I ever expected to happen to me. I hadn't been particularly religious in my last life, nor had I done anything that I would have thought earned me Karma points in order to get a human body if the Hindus had the right of it. Nor was it the work of any Buddhist teachings as I definitely remembered who I had been and was no longer.

Honestly, I was very split in my opinion for the formative years of my second life, half of me resenting having to go through the monotony of life again, and the other half plotting on how to capitalize on my leg up from all the other little snots my age. Needless to say, I wasn't the nicest or the happiest child… in fact I was the kid that everyone was terrified of, but would never admit to being so.

But I should probably introduce myself.

My name is Susana Stackhouse, younger sister to Sookie Stackhouse and Jason Stackhouse. I live in Bon Temps, Louisiana with my Grandmother Adele. I was a 28 year old business owner who was stabbed to death while walking home from a diner. This is my life in what is decidedly not the reality I left behind.


	2. The Begining

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has not been edited yet. possible triggers for incest, attempted rape, and underage (this is Trueblood), you are warned.

Mentions of incest/sexual assault on a minor, nothing graphic but could be triggering.

Having been an only child and happy about it in my past life I was rather iffy on the idea of suddenly having older siblings, although it might have just been these siblings... Jason was 5 years older and not the brightest bulb in the box so I wasn't really sure how to deal with him and his inability to think most of the time. Sookie was 3 years older, and while I wasn't to enthused about her either, we ultimately bonded slightly over our shared 'affliction' when I suddenly woke up one day and was able to tell what Gran was thinking of making for breakfast.

Our parents had died when I was 4, and therefore theoretically 'too young' to really remember them. I did, but I hadn't really been in their lives long enough for them to make an impression other than they took good care of me. Gran was one person who I wholeheartedly took to in this new life, she was a genuinely good person, despite not always doing to best thing, she tried, and she loved us all to the best of her ability even if I never acted as the perfect granddaughter (Sookie took to that role just fine without me). Therefore when I too started to display what Sookie had started to refer to as her 'Disability' when I had reached 5/6, she was the support I needed that Sookie was too young to really be.

Being able to read thoughts wasn't as awesome as stories and movies had always made it out to be. It was a constant barrage of useless, scarring, and heavy information from anyone within range 24/7 and despite seeing how I could use this to an advantage even if I had no fucking idea of how I suddenly became telepathic, well, most days I wished I didn't have it.

Particularly when Uncle Bartlett came over.

He didn't do much to me, I think he preferred Sookies age range of 10/11ish to my 7, plus I wasn't as 'cutely submissive' for his tastes, the asshole. Sookie thought herself to be my protector and tried her best to be a shield and helped me get away at times, but it all came to a head when I just turned 8 and she was a few months till 11.

Uncle Bartlett had come over to babysit and right away we both heard his intentions, he intended on finally taking Sookie before moving on to starting to show me my place. His head was disgusting and immediately Sookie ran for it, sending thoughts for me to follow, we both communicated mostly via thought, particularly when undesirable company was over, however I sent her on her way, assuring that I wanted to try something and that she would be of no help.

'Come on Susie! He's coming!' she thought desperately, scared witless and past the tree line now, waiting for me to join her, not brave enough to come back out and get me herself.

'No, I think I'll explain to this bastard exactly what I'll do if he ever comes back here.' I told her as I moved into the kitchen and grabbed one of the kitchen knives as he entered the house looking for us.

'what?! What are you doing you can't!?' I shut Sookie out as best I could while she proceeded to break down in fear and confusion outside, my morality and intentions not matching up to her understanding.

"There you are girlie, Where's your big sis?" Bartlett came in inching towards me before I pointed the knife at him and stopped dead, eyeing it warily "what're you doing girl?"

"I'm threatening you." I stated simply, aware that the sight of a cute 8 year old with a deadly implement stating such a thing in a sweet tone was fucking with him "I want you to get in the bathroom right now or I'll make sure you can't get it up ever again" my deadly serious tone pausing his thoughts of just overpowering me, at heart, he was a coward.

Our standoff continued until my unwavering grip and stare made him take me seriously and he went in, with me blocking off the door waiting for Gran who ran him off with a shotgun when she came home. I was grounded for a week for taking 'the violent' way and she made me go to confession that Sunday, but I suppose a 8 year old who would threaten to de-man a grown man was something people were not comfortable with. Sookie was half in awe and half furious with me for a long time after, she wasn't able to reconcile what she believed and what I did, but that was fine with me. I didn't take shit when I was alive the first time, and I had decided to stay true to that in this one as well.

After the Bartlett incident Jason and Sookie were different with me, Jason not understanding how his 'Baby Su' could do such a thing and therefore went blind to everything that marked me as 'different' and treated me exactly how he treated his 'Baby sis' Sookie. Sookie, who was the the nicest sweetest little thing in Bon Temps, didn't understand, and therefore was wary of me thereafter despite being a social pariah herself. She soaked up Grans teachings and liked going to church and couldn't understand why I was the way I was (decidedly not nice and bitter) so she gravitated more towards Tara and eventually, stopped trying to really figure out anything, just accepted it and maintained a somewhat close yet tenuous relationship with me, even if the main factor of our relationship was to do with our shared gift.

I eventually graduated top of my class, and unlike Sookie who couldn't stand the voices I learned to embrace them and found more control because once you accepted your gift it was much easier to mold to your will, but I had always been a carrier of an iron will. On top of that, Listening to the test answers from your classmates was just an added bonus for me, despite how many lectures I got about 'fair play' from both Gran and Sookie. This allowed me to finish high school and go on to college in Shreveport at LSU on scholarship. An economics degree this time, I already knew the business side of things.

Life went on from there, I was the black sheep that the family loved but would never understand, and they were the family I was attached to, but would never conform for. I frequently visited home and graduated early after abusing my previous memories, managing to secure a loan and open my own little Café called 'The Den' near some schools and did fairly well, and finding a peace in this life that I had never achieved in the past.

Then the Vampires came out of the coffin.


	3. Enter the Northman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time Skipppp!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I attempted adding in some more detail and editing...
> 
> I wrote most of the existing story highly intoxicated, it might have shown originally lol.
> 
> (hopefully not now)

"So a vampire moved in right next door, came to the bar, and then you saved him from drainers?" I repeated slowly, wanting her to suddenly exclaim that she was just kidding.

"Yeah! The first vamp in Bon Temps, and I saved him from the Rattrays!" She sounded like she usually did: a tad self-righteous, wanting vindication for her 'heroics'

"So you, the little waitress from Bon Temps, JUST HAPPENED to know to save him and JUST HAPPENED to happen on a vamp who got caught by the RATTRAY'S of all people… how old is this vampire again?" I asked, praying to any god out there that she hadn't fucking outed us both. I didn't know what had happened exactly, but this was more than enough to put me on alert, Sookie wasn't the smartest girl out there, even if she raised the collective IQ of Bon Temps a few points.

"He's a Compton, I think from the Civil War!" She said, too fucking cheery for my taste, and for the situation. Just because everyone in Bon Temps knew we were a little off center didn't mean she should be announcing something like that to strangers, there was a reason I actively encouraged everyone to think it was only Sookie who had that quirk, with her blurting out peoples secrets left and right, it wasn't that hard.

Perhaps I was being to hard on her, but a bad feeling in my gut had started the moment I answered the phone and was regaled with her 'triumph' over the Rattray's and how she 'saved' a vampire.

Humans typically don't get the chance to save super powered dead people without there being an extreme circumstance, which this wasn't. I wasn't an expert, but I had been living in Shreveport for years now, so I wasn't a stranger to the Vampire race and their behaviors.

"Listen to me" I demanded "DO NOT tell him about me, don't invite him into the house, and be careful with anything having to do with him. If he's that old and needed your help, there has to be something up." I warned, hoping she would get the meaning that a vampire that old shouldn't have been caught by people as stupid at the local drainers, not if he had been smart enough to live since the fucking Civil War.

Unfortunately I live to be disappointed.

"Don't be silly! I'm always careful!" her voice was peppy over the phone and all I wanted to do was drive down there and shove some sense into her like I've been trying to do since we were kids, a true fantasy if there ever was one.

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." I said shortly, "That situation stinks like shit so be careful, if you're in Shreveport anytime soon let me know, we can do dinner... or whatever." I ended the call on a positive-ish note, despite wanting to bang my head on a wall because of her belief that that wasn't a situation to be wary of, fucking vampires and their shit.

I had struggled with it at first, after the vampire revelations the voids I would feel occasionally at night made much more sense. Once I had put Trueblood on the menu and expanded my hours for a night shift I had come to appreciate the notion that I could talk to someone without having a rolling stream of consciousness to monitor at the same time. But that didn't mean I fucking trusted them, no, in fact I think anyone who has the smarts to stay alive for hundreds of years are probably the least trustworthy of all, survival is a messy business, just watch the Discovery Channel.

Surveying my café I let the thoughts wash quietly over me, most of it nonsense but I got a sense that at least they all were happy with the service… how nice.

"Ben!" I called for my floor manager, a 28 year old man who had been on with me since the beginning, "I'm heading out, lock up at 12am as usual, yeah?" the guy was the best employee ever, trustworthy and efficient, just how I liked them.

"Sure thing Su!" He responded with an easy grin 'I hope she's not going on a date... She looks so pretty tonight' the guy was also nursing a mild crush on me for some reason, but I dealt with it to keep him around he was too good at his job and I was too lazy to put as much effort as I have to too hire another decent employee.

Leaving the café and driving back to my shitty apartment was always the highlight of my day, no need for a filter. Living in apartments was a stupid decision, but I couldn't afford much else at the moment, and had no desire to move back to the backwater town of Bon Temps where everyone was convinced I was the Antichrist or something. Sookie may have been the social reject due to poor control, but I was feared due to my inability to take bullshit and my willingness to take revenge. Tara and I were often compared, but while she was an explosive firecracker when angered, I was the Ice Queen, willing to verbally destroy any and all who dared think their opinion was wanted or needed with a cool smile. Sookie always told me I was too mean, and Jason got embarrassed that he couldn't do it, and Gran thought I needed to be more forgiving... living alone was so much better.

 

\---  
After a few days, Gran called about Jason's arrest, and Sookie called, inviting me to go with her to the vampire bar Fangtasia with her and this new vampire Bill in order to investigate further into the case. I believed her when she said Jason didn't do it, the guy was basically an overgrown puppy, more interested in humping things than murder.

"I don't think you should be going there, it's not your scene Sookie" I tried to convince her one last time, knowing she wouldn't go for it.

"Jason is our brother! And if I can help him then I am going to help him! Are you going to come or not?" I sighed, she really was the most irritating thing sometimes... at least Jason knew he was dumb.

"Fine," I snapped "I'll meet you there with your stupid vampire Bill, and make sure you get out without being dinner! Just don't expect me to be happy about it." I couldn't not go, she didn't know the first thing about clubs or vampires, how had this become my life? She was lucky she was my sister.

Fangtasia was corny; it was a mash up of cliches wrapped around a bucket load of sex appeal and while I had never gone myself, the stories were more than enough to make me wary of the place; I didn't fancy being anyone's dinner. Regardless, I wanted to meet this 'Bill' and make sure Sookie made it out with every drop of blood she went in with, she was far too trusting at the best of times. Meeting up with them at Fangtasia later that night only reaffirmed my opinion.

Sookie and I looked quite a bit alike; both of us having blond hair and blue eyes set on a tan and curvy build. But where she had the softer features and constant smile, I had sharper ones and a perpetual 'bitch face' as I was told. So I guess I really should have been surprised when I found her looking like she was going to church instead of a club, complete with a white sundress and pumps.

"SUSIE! You look great!" she called rushing over looking at my outfit of fitted dark jeans and a blue tank top and a nice pair of heels, this is why I can't hate her all the time, she's too nice.

"You too Sookie, but you look like you're going to church, not a bar…" I trailed off as who I presumed to be Bill came up to me "And you must be that vamp who got caught in a rat trap, Bill right?" I asked as his face grimaced at the reminder. Now I saw why Sookie was so enamored with him, he looked like the stereotypical southern gentleman, how... predictable.

"Yes, I'm Bill Compton, I just moved in at the old Compton place next to your sister and grandmother" he smiled charmingly, oh yes, I can see how Sookie would be all over this, she glared at me as she caught that thought.

"How nice for you, I'm Susana" I responded dryly not bothering with a handshake, vamps didn't do that "Lets head in so you can do whatever it is you wanted to do Sook." 'The quicker we do this the sooner we can leave'

'Be nice! This is exciting!' she mentally responded as the deluge of the clubs thoughts started to hit us both with a wave of sexSexSEXbloodBLOODsex, I instantly started to regret everything again as Bill awkwardly led Sookie in with myself not far behind. The vampire who first came up to us was a hot bitch, I liked her immediately. She seemed to know Bill and carded each of us after introductions, claiming she couldn't tell 'human' ages, handing mine back she raised her eyebrow,

"22 hmm? A nice year." She leered a bit as she handed it back, spouting off about not serving minors as Bill just stood there awkwardly, and I continued to be just as annoyed with everything after giving her a quick once over myself as Sookie started off with comparing the bar to a ride at Disney and Bill being what I quickly realized as his attempt at some sort of threatening/charming thing, god how was this working on her?

"Don't get to comfortable, it tends to get more authentic as the night wears on" I just looked at him, completely unimpressed

"Well who would have thought?" I deadpanned, 'SUSIE!' Sookie scolded as I just sent her waves and waves of unimpressed feelings; yes this place had me in a bad mood.

"Would you like a drink?" He asked us, Sookie accepted instantly, but I wasn't about to be off my game in a place like this, Sookie mentally rolled her eyes at my train of thought.

'One drink won't kill you, be nice' she mentally huffed

'I don't do nice'

"I'll just go find us a table" I muttered, surveying the room and heading to a free one, after surveying the room a bit (it was every inch the cliché I thought it would be) I started to attempt to clear my mind and block out the voices, succeeding in getting an unpleasant white noise in the back of my head but preferring that to the depraved thoughts of those in here. When they got to the table I asked if she had found what she was looking for.

"No, just that he's seen them before." Her tone was disappointed as she started to survey thoughts in the room, I wasn't surprised with her failure to get anything out of the bartender, but I was that she thought that she'd get anything of value out of the crowd, I let myself settle back as Bill made small talk with Sookie about her drink, until she started asking about the vampire on the dais. 

"Who's that?" she gestured to the hot vamp in the ostentatious throne overlooking the crowd, half of which were plotting ways to get into his pants, not that I blamed them in the least.

"Oh you noticed him did you?" oh my god, I was so done with him, of course she notices the flaming hot vamp in the big throne who everyone was panting after, I tuned back in to hear "-that's Eric. He's the oldest thing in this bar." Finishing right as 'Eric' punted a man across the room and I started to quietly laugh, I stopped when I heard his next words

"So can you hear anything?" I whipped my head around and glared at Sookie, who at least looked a bit sheepish as she responded

"All anyone's thinking about here is sex sex sex." Damn it Sookie, 'we are going to have words about this' I promised her darkly as Bill joked that anyone could have told him that 'so many words' her eyes widened and her thoughts flickered inadvertently to a scene with a lot of blood and Bill saving her. I was so done with this night now, I just wanted to drag her back to my place and interrogate her about exactly what that had been about, it was hard to remember she was 'older' than me sometimes.

Next to me I heard the tail end of Sookie freaking out about something "Vampires aren't supposed to say uh oh!" I looked up at that, staving off the migraine I could feel building

"It's Eric, he's scanned us twice, he's going to summon us"

"Summon you maybe, I haven't done shit." I stated, not wanting to go up there

"Doesn't matter" he said as Eric motioned to our table to come up.

"He can do this?" Sookie was obviously not entirely happy about being put in front of the wolves, good, that what she gets for diving in headfirst. Bill offered hands to each of us, helping us up and leading us up to the dais, hovering closer to Sookie, but surprisingly staying closer to me than I would have thought.

"Bill Compton" he drawled out "It has been a while"

"Yes well I've-"

"Been mainstreaming, yes I heard" he turned his head to look at Sookie and I "I see that is… going well for you" he looked both of us up and down, Sookie standing there uncomfortable and it was all I could do not to scoff 'Best not insult the super old dead guy' as a testament to her nerves, she didn't even laugh mentally, rude.

"Yes well of course, sorry Eric these are my friends-" Bill got cut off again, it was starting to become amusing

"Sookie and Susana Stackhouse" he finished, eyeing us

"How did you know our names?" Oh fuck, Sookie actually sounded confused.

"I never forget a pretty face, you're both in my vault" Pam snarked/mildly threatened and I smirked

"Well there are worse places to be." I offered offhandedly as Sookie just looked a bit scandalized as Pam and I eyed one another for the second time, Eric looking on amusedly

"Great! Well that's just great! It was nice to meet –" I cut her off there

"Hang on there Sookie, I'm sure there's more to this than a meet n' greet" and if looks could kill, I'd still be alive because Sookie can't glare for shit 'how could you?!' she railed at me while Eric and Pam muttered in a foreign language, probably something Scandinavian.

"Miss Stackhouse I understand you've been asking questions about some of my customers" She agreed "If you have anything to ask you should ask it of me" damn, that was sexy.

"Alrighty…" she pulled out the two pictures, Dawn and Maudette "you recognize any one of these girls?" trying her best to sound professional while he acquiesced and recognized both, the one he rejected and the one he drank from, Sookie just kept getting increasingly indignant and again, tried to leave too soon after Pam scandalized her... again.

"I'm not finished with you all yet," his sharp tone stopping everyone "please… sit" as he gestured to the empty chairs near him, Soookie and I sat down while Bill remained standing, I knew this was a bad idea and my mental field day with 'I told you so's' had Sookie getting increasingly pissed off at me, I couldn't help being a bastard, it's what I do.

"So Bill… are you quite attached to your… Friends" he eyed both of us again as Bill actually turned a bit aggressive, for once.

"They are Mine" He spat out, Sookie instantly agreeing with him while my independent womanly sensibilities where offended, thus culminating in my automatic rejoinder.

"Fuck you no" I spat as Sookie gasped at me, like I was supposed to go along with it but missed the que cards...darn, 'I don't know him and I don't trust him, I'm not fucking going to be his' meanwhile Bill just looked offended with a sheen of embarrassment and an undertone of…anger? Eric just looked incredibly entertained.

"Well, how interesting" his eye fucking more thorough this time as I raised my eyebrow, I was so done with tonight.

"Not really." I stated, and he just looked smug, for whatever reason.

"Sit with us!" he demanded when Bill hadn't moved "we have much catching up to do, you and I" and he turned back to casually give me another once over, but my attention was caught by Sookie who was listening into the crowd, and I caught the tail end of an Undercover cops thoughts, Undoubtedly what she was listening to.

'No Sookie DON'T!' too late, she leaned over towards Bill.

"We have to get out of here, there's going to be a raid!"

"Sookie-"

"Tell me you're not undercover cops" Eric demanded

"We're not, the man in the hat is." I stated, curse my sense of familial loyalty that occured at the worst times, we were so screwed now.

"Even if you're right we do nothing illegal here." Eric settled back down, but watched me with a curious glint in his eye I didn't like, but better me than Sookie, she wouldn't have been able to deal with so much attention in any way that made sense to a sane person.

"There's a feeding happening in the bathrooms, a Taryn I believe." Soul, meet devil. I can't believe I am taking the fall for this for her; she owes me so much pie.

"How do you know?" Pam questioned, as the sound of policemen started to come from the doors.

"I fucking pay attention." There, chew on that.

"Follow me" Eric stood and I rushed to do so, I couldn't afford a night in lockup, Sookie and Bill where right behind me. He flung open the door leading to the back and looked over his shoulder

"I enjoyed meeting you both, you will come again" and with that he was gone, stupid vampire speed. Bill grabbed us both at the waists and speed us over to where our cars were.

"I can't say it was nice meeting you tonight" I looked at Bill and quickly cut Sookie off before she could start "and I can't say how many times I've told you about getting in over your head, I'll be coming to Grans this weekend and we're going to talk about everything then." 'I'm so angry at you right now, don't start anything'

She could see and hear my sincerity, and for once in her life backed off. I wasn't the most pleasant person to deal with, but she knew now as I had been saying all night, that this had been a bad idea. And now I was involved when I hadn't wanted to be.

"I'll see you Saturday then." She replied meekly 'I'm sorry Su…'

I drove home angry, and when I got inside the last thing I had wanted was to hear a knock on the door a few hours later around 2am waking me up. Shuffling to the door in a tank top and shorts, I had the most unpleasant surprise of the night yet.

"Hello Kitten"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTW---- I don't own Trueblood.


	4. Sleep? Nahhhh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Eric sort of gets what he wants and Su just wants to go to bed.
> 
> And maybe I compare them to cats and dogs lolololol

"So let me get this straight, I go to your bar and meet you and say all of a few sentences to you, help you get out of a police raid because I'm awesome like that and you think the best course of action is to show up at my door at 3 AM in the fucking morning like a huge ass creeper?" I blandly recapped as soon as I registered that the huge mass in my doorway was not Bigfoot and in fact, was one giant vampire named Eric. Squinting up at him completely unbothered that my hair was a mess and my pants were on backwards I just waited for an explanation as he just loomed right outside the doorway looking completely unrepentant.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" oh so this is how he wanted to play, I just gave him an 'are you serious?' look and folded my arms waiting for him to get the hint of 'no'.

"I was given to believe it is bad manners to not invite a guest in." he continued as it became clear I was not about to cave.

"It is" I agreed calmly, "but I never claimed to have good manners" well I had them; I just didn't feel the need to practice them most of the time. He gave me an odd look before moving down to eye the amount of leg I was showing, I was just happy I remembered to put pants on before opening the door.

"I would like to discuss what happened tonight, and as I cannot ask your sister... I will seek my answers from you." He continued to stand there while my mind raced to pull up some bullshit answers and I knew I'd have to let him in, for now, I doubt he was aware I understood a few parts of vampire living, namely the invitation thing, from my café patrons, secrets where not sacred in my cafe, no matter how glamored you were.

"Fine, just for now, come in Eric" and I moved away from the door letting him walk past "do you have a last name?"

"Northman." He responded, prowling around my front room, looking at everything and lingering especially on the few photos I had displayed "this is a shitty apartment, how can you live in something so small?" I just glared as he continued his investigating, his blasé tone not endearing me to him. 

"So back on the topic of you darkening my door at an unholy hour? Because if you're just going to creep around I have work in the morning and I dislike having strange men anywhere around my person... or in my apartment... or life." I was growing increasingly agitated at his presence and I did have to get up early in the morning for the coffee rush.

"So you'd prefer a women?" his grin was sin incarnate as he turned to look at me again, eyebrow quirking as his eyes focused on my exposed legs again.

"And if I did?" I squared off my shoulders, trying to give as good as I got... but failing under his considerable experience as I tried to remain stoic in the face of his perusal.

"ohhh..." he purred "I can tell you're lying."

"Oh yeah?" I retorted, managing to not have my voice crack from the sheer onset of arousal that hit me with his tone.

"Susana Stackhouse, 22 years old, native of Bon Temps, youngest of 3 siblings including Jason and Sookie Stackhouse. Finished a local high school, went to LSU here in the city, graduated quickly and is now the owner and operator of The Den, a popular college café, and lives in this ridiculously small apartment." He suddenly rattled off, then looked at me intently, was he trying to throw me off or something? 'probably'

"So you googled my name, you want an award or something grandpa?" he smirked again, which just irritated me, I think I've grown to spoiled with the general populations reactions to my demeanor, obviously he wasn't about to rise to any bait I hung out there 'it seems we are at an impasse´

"Cute Kitten," he rumbled out, which made him equal parts sexy and insufferable, damn him "sheath those claws, what I want to know is how a rather unimpressive girl like you wound up around the likes of Compton and 'magically' knowing about the raid" his sarcastic emphasis on 'magically' probably was meant as a threatening sort of taunt, but really, who pays attention to those sorts of things when his voice is just ughhhh… Shaking my head I fixed him with another glare 'I'm too tired for this'

"let's not play games" I caved first, unable to really think of a lie he would believe if he didn't already know the truth and was just testing me "I bet you probably have a good idea of the how's if not the whys, so what are you really after?" I demanded, feeling the migraine of earlier threatening to return. To my disappointment, my rebirth hadn't offered me any amazing cheat codes on how to be better at life, no. Instead it had fostered an inability to deal with frustrating people and a controlling nature, yes, THAT'S what going through childhood perfectly aware does to you, don't even get me started on going through puberty again as a telepath! In any case, the entire night had thrown me off my game and having to deal with this man again so soon and sleep deprived was probably the worst thing to happen to me in a long time.

"You're a quick little Kitten, I'll give you that." My eye twitched at the continued use of the nickname "you and your sister are quite special aren't you? And Bill thought to keep you to himself, regardless, he got your sister, so that leaves…you" I froze as he came right up to me and looked down, scrutinizing, as though he could see everything I wanted to hide by just looking "Bill can't have you both, so while you sister might be his, you are not under anyone's protection"

"Are you threatening me?" my voice was icy as I glared up at him, completely ready to try and rescind his invitation if he tried to do anything, not much of a plan, but something.

"Oh no Kitten, no threats…" he placed his hands on my shoulders and I bristled at the tone 'is this fucker seriously trying to seduce me?' "I'm suggesting you become mine."

"Fuck you" I spat out, mostly because I knew that his allusion to my needing protection wasn't bullshit. Sookie had taken up with Bill, and while I didn't like or trust him, it did offer her some sort of protection, while I had just been outed in a bar of vampires and had no such thing… fuck, suddenly his little early morning rendezvous made much more sense, he wanted to beat anyone else to the valuable little human. I suddenly had the ridiculous mental image of vampires lined up outside my door determined to get to me before anyone else, like crazy shoppers on Black Friday, the image caused me to let out a started laugh as he smiled.

"Is that an offer?" his shit eating grin transformed his face from sexy/deadly vampire to something much more relatable, I kinda liked it.

"No." I scoffed meeting his gaze with a challenging one of my own "but why should I be yours, I can take care of myself" bullshit and I knew it, he knew it, but I had my pride. His eyes glittered, knowing full well he had already won, but played along anyways.

"Because Kitten, I'm the best choice." He was probably right, even Bill had said he was the oldest thing in the bar, and there had been quite a few vamps there.

"I'm not just going to roll over and be your blood bag whore, so if that's what you're after you should leave." I stated, I was not a walking refreshment center, nor was I interested in being a fuck toy like so many Fangbangers were. I had had a healthy sex life previously, and I was no stranger to how amazing orgasms could be, but if there was ever one similarity between Sookie and I it was the inability to get past the thoughts men had about us (even if some where actually quite flattering). Thus, I wasn't eager to simply jump into bed with the first thing I could, even if he was ridiculously sexy, I had too much pride and self-respect to let that happen.

"I want you to work for me." Well he agreed to that incredibly fast, smug bastard probably thought he could work up to the rest… looking at his face again, he probably could "I could use someone like you, in all ways if you were ever agreeable" he flashed a fangy grin "you smell wonderful."

It was at that I pushed away, not wanting to be close to a potentially hungry vampire who may or may not respect limits, all signs pointing to not. He had attempted to glamour me a few times throughout the conversation, I could feel the telltale signs brushing against my mind, but never breaking through. Useful to know that glamor didn't work, but rather annoyed he used it on me in the first place.

"I have a life. And a business I need to run, I can't be at your beck and call." This night was going down as one of the most bizarre and horrible nights to ever happen to me in this life.

"I could work up a contract." He offered up, looking to much like the cat that got the cream, his eyes rather fixated on my chest where my folded arms had inadvertently pushed my boobs into attention, what a horn dog.

"Do that." I demanded, my hands going to my hips "and while you're at it, kindly leave and let me get back to bed, some of us need to be up with the sun." While not the most mature of responses, it did make me feel a bit better, he just continued to be unaffected and radiated an air of smugness, it was even more infuriating.

"I'll do that, My Kitten." He sauntered slowly to the door "and I'll see you tonight." And with that he zipped off, not even letting me have the last word, what an ass, both literally and figuratively.

Sighing I pinched in between my eyes, the migraine having reinserted itself full force, before glancing at the clock.

4:38 a.m.

I had to be at the shop at 5:30, obviously I was not going to be going back to bed, so with that I shuffled towards the shower after locking my door back up.

Fucking Eric Northman


	5. Deals are Done

The morning following that horrific whirlwind of a night was just as awful as I thought it would be… and a million times worse than that. I had gotten all of 2 hours of undisturbed rest, combined with my worry for Sookie and my now ‘sort of’ claimed status by Eric fucking Northman and the general distaste of mornings made for a distinctly unhappy Susana Stackhouse. Even the regular customers seemed to be wary of me this morning, despite my attempts (as weak as they were) to be as pleasant as possible.

I was intimidating in general, that I knew and encouraged, but these people who I had sort of known for a while now had thoughts of actual fear. I didn't realize I was that scary to normal people. It all came to a head when Ben, sweet and steady Ben, tried to cheer me up when his shift started at 2.

"Come on boss lady! You need to smile more!" he ribbed me good naturedly, and even though I had been drinking a bottomless cup of coffee since that morning. I wasn't sure if it was my frayed nerves or my overdose in caffeine that caused me to snap at him, but whatever it was, I just went off.

"Don't tell me what to do in my own café Ben; don't you have something better to be doing than bothering me? Fucking Hell!" I think it was how dispassionately I said it that caused his smile to drop and his good humor to shatter. God I was such an ass, Ben Summers was literally the last person in my life who deserved my awful temper, particularly when he hadn't done anything to deserve it. He had been with me since the beginning, all 7 months ago. Ben was just a vet down on his luck when he walked in for an interview, and I know for a fact he hadn't expected to get the job when he interviewed with me, but he was such a genuine person I couldn't have NOT given him the job. Promoting him to manager a few months later had been one of my best decisions, and his small crush notwithstanding, he was the ideal employee. Swallowing my pride I headed over too him to apologize after a few minutes.

"Hey Ben…" apologies were not something I did often "Look, I'm sorry for being such a dick today; I didn't really get any sleep last night because there are some family issues going on with my siblings." I kept my eyes riveted to the floor shuffling awkwardly  
'Poor Su, she really does look like she's been through hell last night'

"Ah it's ok Su, I get it" I looked up and he was smiling awkwardly "we all have bad nights, I hope everything is alright." he finished off looking away thinking about the nightmares he still had sometimes and how he got afterwards. I smiled gratefully, 

"Thanks Ben" I grabbed his shoulder "You're the best, do you mind if a head out a bit early? I can barely see straight." It was true, everything was kind wavering like I was on shrooms or something, and he smiled back

"Sure Su, don't worry about it." He smiled and reassuringly squeezed my shoulder; he really was a great person.

"You're getting a raise when this place makes more money." I grinned at him as I started to head for the door.

"You always say that" he shot back, that's true, I did.

"And when we do you will!" I called behind me trying not to run towards my car knowing my sweet, sweet bed was only minutes away. Driving home I was surprised I didn't get arrested or in an accident for breaking all of the road laws, but karma bit me in the ass when I tripped on the curb getting up to the doors of my building.

"MOTHERFUCKER!" I swore loudly, earning scandalized glances from the few people milling around. My palms where both torn up a bit, one cut in particular was bleeding sluggishly as I picked a small rock from it… just great. I rushed up to my 3rd floor apartment and quickly scrubbed my hands and set an alarm before falling into bed, at least today was Friday and I'd be heading to visit Sookie and Gran tomorrow.  
…  
I woke up at 6:05pm exactly as my phone started wailing its annoying text tone, a good hour or so till sunset. When Eric had said he'd see me tonight, I had figured he'd probably drop by my apartment at some inconvenient hour again; instead I got a text from him detailing time and place.  
Unknown Number: Kitten, meet me Fangtasia tonight at 10, wear something sexy ;)  
I just stared at my phone unimpressed while typing out a reply and adding him to my contacts  
SS:What makes you think I want to ever go back to your bar again?

HornDog: you don't even want to know how I got your number? Who said it was optional?

SS:I assume the worst, and are you trying to order me master? :P

HornDog: I do like the sound of that, but I must insist My Kitten

SS:I also assume if I don't show you'll just find me and drag me there anyways?

HornDog: I knew you were a smart Kitty ;P

I stopped texting him after that, choosing instead to make something quick to eat and a shower before looking over my closet to find something to wear. I was aware that tonight would be all about power games and how much we could get each other to concede in terms of working together.   
He couldn't glamour me and needed my willing service, and I needed his protection but didn't want him, therefore it created a sort of Mexican standoff that last night never got the chance to develop into. Therefore my outfit had to be my armor, sexy enough to make him want, but demure enough broadcast 'not easy' a mammoth task that is the bane of every girls existence. Rooting through my closet I found a top I used to use at party nights back in college: a burgundy color tank top that showed just enough to advertise, but leave you guessing. I paired this with my trusted black skinny jeans that made my butt look glorious, and then I was set. Light makeup, a hairdo that left one side of my neck completely open and a pair of 'fuck me' heels and I was convinced that while I did looked tempting it was also an outfit that could be paired with a suit jacket and worn to an office… on casual Friday.  
I didn't bother with perfume, he already had admitted he liked the way I smelled and I was playing to win our game, not pick up a random guy at the bar. Leaving the house around 9:50 I made it to Fangtasia around 10:10, nice and fashionably late. Pam met me out in front again, obviously waiting for me,

"Well don't you just look… divine…” she drawled, slowly taking in my outfit as I looked at hers, Leather pants paired with another bustier and red accessories, tacky, but she made them look good.

"I could say the same." I grinned slyly, I wasn't so much into women in general, preferring the male form and all, but I wasn't about to ignore an attractive one who obviously liked what she saw. She grinned sharply

"Oh you're just going to be trouble aren't you?" her rhetoric not waiting for a response as she continued "Eric's been waiting for you in his office, you’re late" I grinned,

"Well I'm here now, or I can just go home if he's too busy?" I offered and she smirked again, I wasn't fooling anyone.

"Oh no, he'll be happy to see you now." And with that she lead me inside, past the floor where I has been yesterday and into the back offices where she opened the last door,

"Your human's here" she announced briskly, before leaving me on my own to face him smirking as she walked past, what a bitch.

"Come in" I heard him rumble from inside as I slowly entered to see him behind a desk frowning at a computer before he looked up, eyes widening.

"Hello My Kitten," he practically purred getting up and stalking towards me, I clenched my hands and faced him,

"Hello Eric." Dammit my voice suddenly hadn't got the memo of 'sound fierce' and went for husky instead, he grinned as he came closer pushing his shoulder length hair back and grinning as his nostrils flared.

"You look positively mouthwatering Kitten, did you dress up just for me?" he took my arm and lead me to the chair in front of his desk, lingering a few moments longer than necessary before going back to sit in his chair, eyes never leaving me.

"Of course not," I challenged, tilting my neck to expose it more slightly as I met his eyes defiantly.

"Of course not," he echoed agreeing, but not believing me in the slightest and enjoying this far too much "I've had my people draw up something I believe will benefit the both of us." He pushed over a piece of paper, deliberately making so I'd have to reach for it. Controlling myself to pick it up and make it as casually sexy as possible, I quickly read it over.

"3 nights a week and weekend availability?" I questioned, raising my eyebrow skeptically, "I do have a life you know." I looked up at him waiting for an answer.

"You can't work every night shift in your café, and the weekends are when I am busiest." He said, clearly not understanding what a 'life' meant.

"No I mean for my social life, friends and dates and such, I'm visiting family this weekend." His nostrils flared as his eyes narrowed in anger as I sat there unmoved by his display "two nights a week and one weekend a month predetermined and I can be on call for emergencies of epic proportions." I demanded.

"Three nights a week and I'll agree to everything else." He countered

"Fine. And if I have to travel or go anywhere with you I will require at least a week's notice, but two would be better and we'll discuss the pay for those on a case by case basis." I perused the contract again trying not to miss anything, other than the time requirements he was fair with pay and everything else, offering 30$ an hour for my time, 50$ for overtime/emergencies, I'd negotiate that up later, but for now it was a fair starting point.

"I can't guarantee that in an emergency" he led, I could see how much it bothered him to have to accept my demands in order to get my services, poor vampire who can't glamour me, not.

"Case by case, I'm my own person, not your pet." I said hoping that to be the definitive statement I meant it to be, clenching my hands so hard that my cut reopened 'oh shit'. His nose flared again and instead of countering my offer he was suddenly kneeling right next to me taking my hand into his, eyes fixated on the small well of blood that had appeared, no more than a drop or two.

"What did you do? My Kitten…" he whispered inhaling deeply bringing my hand up to his face,

"What-" I choked off when his tongue laved over the scrape, unprepared for the sensation it evoked. Despite being a virgin still in this life, I hadn't ever considered myself virginal. I had a healthy libido and despite Gran and Sookie lecturing me on the sins of pleasure and the flesh multiple times over the years…

I liked orgasms.

My bedside drawer was so full with all sorts of delightful toys that I'm sure if Sookie ever saw my purchase history on Amazon she'd lose the ability to speak and turn permanently red. I had had years of experience beforehand and access to a well-stocked sex shop during college; my porn folder was nothing to sneeze at either. But regardless, nothing I had ever done, ever experienced… nothing prepared me for Eric.   
His tongue was gentle, yet insistent and probing, he seemed to almost worship my hand while keeping his eyes on mine hotly. I shifted, both aroused and slightly annoyed, wanting to get back to business but unable to tell him to stop, this was the closest I've gotten to good sex in 22 years. Finally with a groan he stopped, tearing his mouth away from the scratch that had stopped bleeding minutes ago, but not moving from his position as I tried not to whimper at the loss.

"You taste delicious Kitten" he groaned while I tried to find anything to say to distract from the ocean of sexual tension that seemed to have filled the room while I had been distracted,

"You know you can call me Su, everyone does really." I muttered and it seemed to do the trick, he drew back and made his way behind the desk, but not before I saw how his jeans had shifted from being 'delightfully form fitting' to 'Is that an anaconda in your pocket or are you seriously packing that?'

"I will not call you by such a common name that everyone uses, you are My Kitten." He smirked seemingly accepting the abrupt topic change

"My name is Susana, use something from that! Just don't call me Kitten" I glowered at him, but instead of being taken aback he seemed amused.

"So I take it that barring the changes you demanded, the contract is pleasing to you?" his focus shifting to the document that had fell to the floor as I shifted to pick it up, his eyes glued to my chest as I sat back up.

"Yes," I put the paper back on the desk as I made to get up "make those changes and I'll sign it, but if that's all I'll be going." Asserting myself lost half the enjoyment I usually got when the feeling he was just humoring me when I refused to be denied, happened, but I'll still do it.

"Alright then," he easily accepted, rising as I did but not moving as I headed towards the door "I'll be seeing you, Sanna." The last word filled with so much suggestion I almost didn't register that he was referring to me.

'Sanna…' I contemplated as I drove home after escaping the crowded bar 'I actually kinda like that…'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sanna is actually the Swedish diminutive to Susannah, which Susana is derived from. Take that.


	6. Shit starts to happen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smashed two chapters together for longer reading pleasure. at the editing/reposting stage I'm way faster, once I'm writing it again updates will be a lot slower, brace yourselves.

Saturday dawned far too early for my liking, the sunny hell that it represented. I knew that I would be expected before noon by Gran, because there was no way in hell Sookie hadn't mentioned my intention to 'visit’…  
Really, I was intending for it to be more of an interrogation topped by food I didn't have to cook myself, but seriously, semantics. My cars A/C was busted however, so the ride over to Bon Temps was not as comfortable as I would like, and the horrible state of the driveway didn't help it at all. Pulling up Gran was already on the front porch, I swear the woman had a sixth sense for where we all were at all times.  
"Susana dear! How lovely to see you again, I swear it's been ages." Gran was all smiles as she ushered me in to the house and straight into the kitchen 

"you're skin and bones dear, what's the point of owning a restaurant if you never eat?" she fretted over me as she pushed sandwiches onto the table and a huge glass of milk. The way she cared was a bit overbearing for my taste, but I let her, she had done this all of our lives and she wasn't about to stop now.

"I take it Sookie is at Merlotte's?" I asked, picking at the food, not really all that hungry but not willing to start anything about my reasonable eating habits, just because I didn't favor the fried and fatty foods that people seemed to live on in the Deep South didn't mean I was overly skinny. I was a healthy size 10, I ate when I was hungry and sometimes went for a run when I felt motivated enough, and mostly I just walked to a local park and sat on a bench in the sun. Strange how habits changed with lives, I had been quite pale in my last one, now I didn't feel like myself if I didn't have a bronze sheen on my skin and sun streaks in my hair.  
"Yes dear, she's on the lunch shift; she'll be back in a few hours." She bustled around the kitchen, her mind buzzing with how happy she was that I was here rather than hiding away in Shreveport. I felt slightly guilty at this, but not even Grans happiness was worth living in this tiny backwater town with the same people who haven't liked me since I was a kid.

"How's Jason?"

"He's out of jail thank the lord, I can't believe the sheriff actually thinks he killed those poor girls." I hummed in response, it wasn't hard to believe the town would blame the easiest suspect, but I too couldn't actually believe Jason would kill the girls; it wasn't at all in him. Gran continued to chatter on and on while I ate and drank a bit, satisfying her need to try and stuff me full of food.

"I think I'm going to go to Merlotte's, I'd like to see everyone again." I suddenly decided, pushing away from the table and causing Gran to look at me skeptically; she knew I wanted to get away, damn her all-knowing powers that knew I didn't really want to be here at all.

"Whatever you say my dear, send them all my love."

"Sure Gran."  
Driving over to the bar quickly, I was greeted by the town lunch crowd, none of whom I was interested in making nice with but all seemed to walk to talk to me about something. The thoughts flitted past me, most dull and uninteresting, some were slightly insulting, and others downright rude. Most people here thought I was an uppity bitch, something I didn't ever discourage, not that it stopped most of them from talking to me. Arlene came over, she had always liked Sookie better, but she still tried to make nice.

"Heeyyy Su! It's been forever!" she called, catching Sams attention and he walked over to where I was,

"Su! What are you doing back in town?" he asked, his voice warm, while again, I wasn't his favorite Stackhouse sister, he liked me better than most and I thought he was a pretty decent guy, his massive crush on Sookie was also pretty adorable.

"I decided Sookie needed a positive role model because if I leave her alone for too long she makes bad life choices." I deadpanned, it was somewhat meant as a joke, but he grimaced a bit,

"So I take it you heard about our new resident?"

"Met him even" I gave him a commiserating look, neither of us had much love for Bill it seemed.

"Ah," he seemed to understand I was on him side and his thoughts lightened a bit, damn it, he was the big brother I wanted, why couldn't Sookie go for him? Meanwhile, She had noticed both of us from across the place and was heading over, obviously gossip time was over.

"Susie! Why aren't you with Gran?" she gave me her 'crazy' smile, obviously she didn't approve of my overt support of Sam's suit.

"Because sometimes I like to say hi to Sam" I jerked my thumb in his direction, she wasn't amused and it showed "and maybe Lafayette." He hadn't noticed me when I came in, but I'd rectify that soon.

"I see." Don't you start anything here Susana Stackhouse I gave her my most winning smile.

'Wouldn't dream of it sis.' We both knew that was bullshit.

"SUSIE you HOOKER! When'd you get back into town?" Lafayette was his usual charming self, screaming from the cook's window.

"Just back for the weekend Laff." I headed over grinning; he was the best and most fabulous thing in this town. Today he had some sort of glitter/mesh thing going on that really worked for him, I still don't know why he hung around Bon Temps, but he did make my visits a whole hell of a lot brighter. Chatting with him through the window while making sure to stay out of the waitresses way made the lunch shift pass by in a flash, there was always something to talk and gossip about with Lafayette. When Sookie got off she waited by her car for me to follow her back to Grans, possibly because she knew I was convinced she'd try and run away somewhere just to avoid the nice sisterly chat we would be having as soon as we got back to Grans.

I had seen some things in her head that I hadn't been able to interrogate her about, and despite calling me to check in fairly frequently, she hadn't mentioned getting as hurt as I saw in her mind that night, I also was pissed about her taking up with a strange vampire as fast as she had. It was possible I wasn't one to talk, seeing as I was in some sort of limbo with Eric Northman who had already basically had molested my hand. But I maintain that would never have happened without the interference of both Sookie and Bill, but seeing as Sookie was family and that sorta meant… something, I was more inclined to place blame on Bill and see what the hell was happening there. Getting back we both were quiet, making our excuses to Gran, and heading up to her room before anything was said between the two of us.

"So, mind telling me what the hell is going on? Last week everything was fine and now you're taking up with some strange vampire, Jason's accused of murder, and you apparently got beat up by someone… the fuck Sookie?" I was pissed that the little bubble we had all lived in was breaking, shattering really. The supernatural were not real in my old life, which was why I had been outspoken in my desire to not become involved. Sure, I'd serve them if they came into my business, talk to them if they talked to me, but I had never been interested in getting into anything more that passing acquaintanceship with them. It was an unknown I hadn't had any clue on how to deal with, and therefore I avoided it when I could, so now being forced into the spotlight of two or more vampires who now knew of my quirk, I wasn't taking it well.

"Bill saved me from the Rattray’s when they came back for revenge…" she said quietly, letting the images flit through of her brutal beating and how Bill had swooped in and fed her blood to heal her… it gave me an uneasy feeling but I wasn't sure why.

"Vampires get fucking pissed when people steal their blood, why would he be so into you drinking his?" I was suspicious, something wasn't adding up in the bigger picture, and frustratingly enough, I couldn't figure out what it was.

"I saved him, so he saved me, I think that's about fair." She thought out loud "Besides, I've decided I don't really want anything to do with him, his friends are not very nice." I raised my eyebrow, here I had been expecting a screaming match or something, and instead I was getting what I wanted… weird.

"Oh? So no more awkward dates for you two?" I jabbed "Finally going to see the light and give someone else a try?" she pinked and I saw her thoughts on Sam asking her to the Descendants of the Glorious Dead meeting, I was thrilled 

"Sam!? That's great!" I moved to sling an arm over her shoulder, a bit out of character, but the guy had been gone on her for years, and I always thought she'd be happy with him, with his thoughts a bit harder to actually make out than other peoples and his overall hotness.

"He asked, and I said yes." She said primly, but still blushing a bit "and speaking of Jason, I'm sure something will come up, I mean, he slept with them yeah, but he'd never do that, he was just there at the wrong time." I hummed, agreeing as I felt most of my anger deflate, I was still pissed about the fact Sookie got beat up but there wasn't anything I could do about it now, Jason was an adult and I didn't have the time to dog his every step, and now that Sookie seemed to be moving on from her brief spurt of insanity, it seems like Eric was the only issue glaring on the horizon. We talked for a bit about other banal topics before I made for my tiny little room down the hall and got ready for bed. Settling in and taking out my phone to charge it a noticed a message from everyone's favorite vampire…

Horndog: I need you at Fangtasia tomorrow night same time.

The brief peace I had felt in the wake of Sookie and I's discussion quickly drained at the demanding tone and lack of detail, meaning I was probably getting pulled into something I didn't want to be again.  
And people wondered why I was always in a bad mood.

 

Sunday saw me escaping from the Stackhouse homestead before church with the halfhearted but not entirely untrue excuse of needing to do some office work. Everyone knew the food industry was one you couldn't keep your eyes off of if you didn't want to get robbed blind, luckily I had a special talent for knowing if people had stolen from me so it wasn't something I ever particularly worried about with such a trustworthy staff. But it wasn't a lie, Purchase orders and payroll and a copious amount of busywork consumed my Sunday.

One it started getting dark I became more apprehensive, I had a bad feeling about the text Eric had sent, and from what I had gleamed from his personality, silence might be something to be feared on his end, he was annoyingly persistent in everything else.

Dressing in sensible wear for a night out, but nothing as extravagant as the other night, I waited for 10. Inside I was seething, annoyed that my days seemed to now revolve around the undead, but there was a tiny voice inside of me, that may have once been my love of adventures, that was thrilled that this was happening. Finally I was going to be a part of something that wasn't boring and mundane, finally something that offered a new experience… but I wasn't sure if I was ready to face the reality of how much I craved the unknown. Pulling up to the club I was again put off by the thoughts of sex and other depraved thoughts, but surprisingly the amount was severely depleted… obviously not another night at the club. Going in I met with the woman… Pam, and was one again eye fucked and lead to Eric's office.  
"You know, I really would rather you explain what you need me for, I haven't even signed anything yet." Announcing my presence despite his knowing I was there the moment I stepped into the building.

"Sanna, how nice to see you, I had worried that I would have to fetch you when you didn't respond." The bastard replied like I hadn't even said anything… infuriating.

"What do you want Northman?" I huffed, crossing my arms and glaring as he just pushed a paper across his desk.

"For you" It was the revised contract, the terms much more agreeable and all the changes I had wanted where included… it was surprising. I had expected a man like Eric to be pushy to the extreme over things like this; it was a bit unnerving to be proved wrong. I frowned at him looking over it a second time, half expecting fine print to jump out and remake the thing into a slave contract. But nothing changed; it remained a perfectly reasonable contract. As if sensing my disbelief Eric spoke up,

"I know you think the worst of me Miss Stackhouse, but I would never seek to deliberately antagonize the telepath in my employ." I eyed him critically, the statement being to open and forthcoming for someone like him to utter, he was definitely playing the long game.

"It looks good" was all I had to say as I casually signed my life away with a ballpoint pen I snagged off his desk "too good, and I will forever regret this, just remembered I didn't have to be yours." I asserted, looking him directly in the eye. He knew it was true too; I could have gone to any vampire beside himself for protection. Like Sookie did with Bill whispered a traitorous thought before I quickly squashed it; there was a distinct difference in the circumstances.  
"Perfect" he purred as he gave the document a once over and them continued to eye me "and now I must ask you for your first consult."

"Oh?" despite my best self-advice this was still quite fascinating to me.  
"Yes, recently I have uncovered some embezzling in the clubs finances; I need you to scan the thoughts of my employees to find the culprit." So that was why there was no one here tonight, interesting.

"I doubt your waitresses have enough IQ collectively to pull off something under your nose, and whoever does your accounting is probably shitting themselves, what makes you think I can find out anything?" he eyed me critically  
"I would agree, but perhaps one of them knows something about it." I sighed looking at him like he was an idiot.

"It was probably a vampire." He looked up sharply  
"What makes you say that?"

"The accountant is thinking so loud it hurts, and the waitresses are glamoured within an inch of consciousness. The best advice I could give you is to look to whomever has access to the money and isn't alive." I finished; annoyingly his smirk reappeared on his face.

"Very impressive, I didn't know your range was that good." I cursed myself internally, the information flow just kept flowing in his favor "and there may be one who matches the description you've given…" he continued smirking as he casually gave me a once over

"So, I think I'm just going to go then…" I made for the door before he blurred right in front of me

"Always so eager to leave Sanna" his hands rested on my shoulders, thumbs stroking the edges of my collarbones, then moving up to the sides of my neck.  
"Yes well, I have a life and am not eager to spend all of it around you." I shrugged him off and glared at the floor "I don't like being forced into things, and I don't like you trying to seduce me to get what you want, you think this is all fun and games with your new little telepath Bill didn't get, but my life is now going to be ruled by the supernatural and I never wanted it to be. I don't expect you to care, or give a shit, but you shouldn't expect me to be happy about this." I moved to get around him only to have his hand return to my shoulders and halt any movement

"This is not a game for me Sanna, I want what you can do, and you need someone like me. If you didn't want to be found, you should never have walked in these doors." His hands traveled up and cupped my face, forcing me to look him in the eye, face completely serious "seduction would just be a fringe benefit… for both of us." His fingers trailed down, caressing over my cheeks and stroking my pulse that had irritatingly enough started to quicken.

"And I suppose my blood would also just be a fringe benefit." I was proud my voice didn't stutter under the full force of his gaze, he grinned, so self-assured that it started to break the spell of his gaze

"Well… you are beautiful, inside and out" his fingers stroked my pulse again and I pulled away looking at him warily

"My blood is mine, you got a freebie last time, but don't expect that to happen again." I moved around him as his head tilted to watch me go  
"A pity" he actually did sound disappointed as his eyes trailed over me again but he made no move to follow.

"Hmm, for one of us" I agreed as I left avoiding the waitresses but unable to escape the notice of Pam or the bartender who sneered at me. Glaring at them I headed out to the car and was just about to open the door when something hit me from behind, throwing me against the car and causing my head to smash against the top and I was immediately dazed as I was whipped around as a punishing grip closed around my windpipe… I couldn't breathe.

"You think you're so smart don't you… pet" the bartender snarled in my face as his grip tightened and I could feel my windpipe being crushed as his fangs extended and he made to bite. Then he was wrenched off me and I fell, trying to breath and failing. Clutching my throat I looked blearily to what was happening a few meters away, all I could see was Eric and Pam, Eric was covered in blood heading over to me.

I couldn't speak, and could tell I was rapidly losing consciousness as whatever Eric was saying was distorted and he just kept gesturing at his wrist in front of my face. He looked angry, and maybe a bit concerned as a slowly blinked at him, the black spots getting bigger, I still couldn't understand what he was saying as I closed my eyes.

Somehow 'I told you so' isn't as fun to say when you're dying.


	7. Death is only...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more of our delightful heroin...

The return to conscious afterwards was a terrifying experience, too similar to the darkness that had enveloped me that other time. I had never talked about what had happened to me, and I avoided thinking about it as much as possible. This was to close for comfort and I'm not even ashamed to say I was beginning to lose it a bit. Coming too I already was sobbing from a throat that didn't seem to hurt and started to thrash about, trying to touch anything I could before a pair of steel arms wrapped around me.

"Not again…" I found myself whispering from a dry and hurting throat, trying to beat away whoever it was, I don't know why but I was terrified of something that I couldn't bring myself to open my eyes and see. I didn't want to go back into where I had been, I didn't want to be in the darkness again, and I really didn't want to know if I was again reborn and was being held by a new mother.

"Hush Sanna, you're fine now." The voice brought me back, belonging to one Eric Northman. I stilled, my senses returning and I realized I was in my bed with Eric holding me for some reason.

"What happened?" I whispered, the events leading up to this a bit blurry as my brain started to come back online, his arms relaxed their hold but he didn't let go instead shifting into a gentler position and stroking my arms.

"Long Shadow heard what you said, it seems you were right, he was the one stealing from me, rather stupid seeing as he was a partner." My breathing was starting to regulate, the stroking actually helping, weird because I knew he was probably the most dangerous thing in the city, but I think I was starting to realize that while he was that, I was also under his protection. Not where I wanted to be, but it was clear that he cared, so if I had someone like him looking out for me… I suppose I should maybe get use to the fact that I was irrevocably tied to Eric.

"It's never going to stop now is it?" it was more of a rhetorical question, a sort of mournful acceptance as his arms stilled and I glanced over to the clock a glaring 3:45 on the clock

"No." short and simple, his answer actually made me feel hopeful that this could work out in the long term. I shifted around to look at him, I safe and alive in my apartment, the arrogant vampire had saved me and was lying here with me…

"You gave me your blood… didn't you?" I looked hard at him, willing his eyes to give anything away should he try to lie.

"Yes" he didn't flinch or anything, his baby blue eyes boring into my slightly darker blue, our hair on the pillow mingled and except for his being straight and mine having a wave.

"And what does that mean." I wouldn't tell him what Sookie told me, something in my gut screaming that I needed to see if the answers would match up.

"I healed you, you would have died." I clenched my eyes shut; I was terrified of dying again. My hands curled into fists and I took a deep breath.

"Thank you Eric" I opened my eyes again, he was still staring at me "but what else will it do?" he pulled back a bit and I felt a sense of loss at the distance.

"I can feel you now, and you will feel for me." His explanation left much to be desired, I raised my eyebrow, "we are bonded in a sense, and there is part of me in you… that means something with vampire blood." His eyes were searching mine, looking for my reaction.

"But you haven't had my blood have you?" I was genuinely curious.

"No Sanna, but if you are offering I wouldn't say no." a wicked grin made its way across his face and a flicker of surprise crossed his face when a softer one crossed mine and I raised my wrist to his face.

"We're a team now, you and I… I'll be your telepath, and you'll be the one who makes sure I don't die while being that." I offered up the wrist, an offering to solidify whatever it was we had.

He looked startled for a second, as if I had caved far easier than expected, and I had. But I was done being antagonistic with what my life was spiraling into, Eric was my best bet for everything, and I was now firmly placing my hat with him. This was my acceptance.

He slowly reached up and took my wrist, as if waiting for me to pull back, his eyes searching mine. He must have found what he was looking for as he lifted my wrist to his mouth, caressing my pulse point with his lips, tongue flicking out to taste. I braced myself for the pain.

"Relax" he drawled out stroking my pulse, and I did a little as his fangs sank in and he groaned, eagerly drawing blood. It wasn't a pleasant sensation, but he seemed to be taking care not to make it hurt despite how eager he seemed. After a few minutes he pulled away licking at the clean holes almost reverently.

"Exquisite. I knew you would be" he smiled, his eyes dilated but he stayed where he was and continued to hold my wrist close and I glanced over at the clock again, it read 4:15.

"It'll be dawn soon." I segued, shifting slightly away as I decided there would be no more sleep that night. He shifted closer pulling me into him nuzzling at my neck,

"Plenty of time." His hands starting to wander, traveling to cup my breasts and pull me closer, and breaking the lull we were in.

"No Eric" I pulled away and got out of bed, glaring down at him, only just realizing that he was shirtless and silently committing the sight to memory, unfortunately he noticed. He stretched, preening under my gaze… the ass.  
"This isn't something that you can just demand, and I won't be offering all the time, don't mistake me." I glared, "I'll work with you, but our agreement stands, I'm your telepath, not your bloodbag, and definitely not your whore." He actually seemed angry for a second before his face cleared,

"Well then," he stood up and stalked over to the window, opening it "I'll be going then, expect my call Kitten." And he flew off, actually flew away.

"Holy shit." I looked out my window, but he was gone. I groaned and scrubbed at my face, so much had just gotten resolved, but now it seemed like a whole new crop of problems had made themselves known.

I went and spent my day at the café, letting my problems take the backseat and welcomed the stream of others thoughts wash over me. When it got to overwhelming I went to the back and did paperwork, letting the employees take over the front.

I stayed until 8, before leaving the night shift to their own devices. On the way home Sookie called, unusual because I had just visited, I answered and wasn't prepared for what I heard.

"Su? Su?! Grans Dead!" she sobbed over the line and I blinked in shock, pulling over to the side of the road

"What?" I couldn't quite believe it, "what happened?"

"Someone killed her! I don't know!" she practically wailed over the line as I made a quick U-turn to drive in the direction of Bon Temps.

"I'm on my way." I clicked the phone shut. I could drive as fast as I needed to with Sookie hysterical over the phone. My blood felt ice cold and I was numb, this was the second time in 24 hours death had been in my life, and this time it had won. Gran had been my one true tether to Bon Temps, both Sookie and Jason had their own lives that didn't often intersect with mine, and most of the time we were happy not interacting overly much.

Gran had been the nicest old lady, and she had loved me despite my lamentable demeanor and distain for the town she had lived in her whole life. And now apparently she had been murdered, in a town that had such a low murder rate before this past week it had been laughable. Now I was furious.

Two girls had been killed, young attractive girls, Gran was so far out of the victim profile it was laughable… but Sookie wasn't. so she had probably been the one targeted, but hadn't been there, now I really had to get there, who knows what was going to happen, and she was probably a mess and in danger.  
I was pushing 85 down the highway and hadn't been pulled over yet when my phone started to ring, I didn't look at the caller ID before opening it.

"What!?" I barked, keeping the majority of my attention on the road.

"So harsh Kitten, something upset you?" the smooth voice of Eric sounded over the phone, "I thought we had gotten so much closer after this morning?" he drawled, obviously in the mood for a verbal tango which I wasn't going to give him.

"My Gran was just murdered and I think my sister was the target, you either tell me that there's a nuke and I need to find who planted it or you hang up right now." My voice icy cool and even, my fury being directed into other channels that would help in the next few days, already thinking about arrangements and the funeral that would have to be paid for and everything else.

"Sanna…" Eric sounded much more subdued, surprisingly "I am sorry for your loss, can I be of assistance?" I was taken aback by the offer, I hadn't thought he'd really care… but he probably didn't and was just asking out of courtesy.

"No, Eric…" I sighed, "but… thanks, what did you need?" despite my recent understanding of my place in this hierarchy, it wasn't easy to suddenly not rage against him all the time.

"I had been calling to tell you I have been summoned by the Magister to explain my staking of Long Shadow, I will be away tomorrow night." I secretly was surprised, I hadn't thought he would get into any trouble regarding that, I suddenly didn't feel as antagonistic as I had.

"Oh… I didn't realize that would get you in trouble… I'm sorry Eric." I apologized over the phone as I reached Bon Temps town line.

"It is fine Sanna, I will be fine, stay safe, I will see you soon." He ended the call on a softer tone and I turned my attention to pulling up the atrocious driveway. It seemed the cops had left; there was just the porch light, and the kitchen lights turned on to let me know where Sookie was.

I parked and quickly went up the steps and opened the door with my key. Stepping into the entry I notice smaller blood splatters before entering the kitchen where I was greeted by a sight that will stay with me forever.  
Sookie, Surrounded by a pool of what had to be Grans blood, the smell of bleach and iron was nauseating and I felt myself getting lightheaded…  
"Su?"


	8. Simmering Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Fighting- and some introspection by our favorite Viking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Figured out how to make my formatting cross over... yep that shouldn't have taken as long as it did...

"Su?" Sookie looked up at me from her place on the floor, where she had just been scrubbing around the blood, it was sickening, I could already feel my stomach dropping.

"wh-what are you doing?" and I could read the  _painsadnessloss_  coming from her which only made it worse, just as she could read the  _lossworryanger_  from me which was just confusing her.

"I'm cleaning up." She gestured around her and the pool of blood she was kneeling in. suddenly the anger just erupted.

"AND SO YOU’RE JUST DOING IT? THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE FOR THAT SOOKIE! PAID PROFESSIONALS!" the resentment I felt bleeding through in my anger. It was bad enough I couldn’t stop blaming her for Grans death, but now I had to have a visual of her kneeling in a pool of her blood, not only a biohazard, but also infuriating.

 She gasped as the thought  _they were after you and you're pulling this shit?_  Flew across my mind, suddenly irrationally angry that she would just be cleaning blood (still gross) hours after Gran had been murdered for what I was all but convinced was an attempt on her. I couldn't keep the accusation and resentment from my thoughts; it wasn't a secret that I had loved Gran more than I did Sookie or Jason.

"I'M SORRY OK? I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO!" she yelled back, indignant that I would even have those types of thoughts while hers sunk into a frantic sort of despair.

"You never do Sookie." I said softly, suddenly too tired to yell anymore, feeling like I had just run 10 miles, and exasperated with both my siblings. Jason wasn't here, Sookie was a mess, and I was just an angry little person, what a lovely trio we made.

"And you always know what's best?" her voice was bitter and full of repressed tears, resentment bleeding through.

"Seems like it more and more." I shot back my thoughts flickering back to the club night and Bill.

"And you and Eric are such a good thing?" she snipped at me, apparently reading more than I thought she had in our time together.

"Yes!  I've been outed, you have too, and did you honestly think that blurting out private thoughts in the middle of a vamp bar was a good thing? Idiot!" I scoffed, after everything I tried to do to prevent shit from happening, she throws it back in my face? Questions choices made under duress?  There was no way I would have agreed without the underlying threat ‘if not me then it will be someone else’ that had hung over my head the entirety of my and Eric’s conversation that night.

"Su!" she gasped, her self-righteous indignation consuming her as I shoved all these truth missiles at her viciously, happy to have an outlet for everything I had been feeling.

"No Sookie." I stopped her, "I am not going to stand for this act again." _You fucked up, you fucked up real bad, and you didn't just fuck yourself, but me too. And now a killer after young girls connected with vampires suddenly killed Gran? Or where they after the resident weirdo who hasn't made her association anything less than town news?" it was harsh, but it was the truth, and I wasn't feeling charitable with Grans blood surrounding me._

"Why are you here if you're just going to be like this?" she sobbed, half in anger, half in sadness.

"Because I loved Gran." I stated shortly, "and I care about you, but I'm not going to deal with your small town bullshit, you don't know how shit works Sook, you never think things through or look to see if maybe you’re missing something, and I'm not going to let you get away with it like Gran did." She looked at me like I was a monster, and maybe I was. But I was past the point of letting her live her fantasies of how everything was alright, how she wasn’t in danger, how she wasn’t painfully out of the know on everything; shit was fucked up, and had been ever since Bill had gotten into town.

"I'm the older sister." A weak argument, she didn't want to not get the last word.

"Some job the two of you older siblings have done." I quietly retaliated, not willing to put up with the 'older' bullshit excuse that had been the bane of my existence for most of this life.  The faint _I got out and you’re still here_ taunt niggling in the back of my thoughts.

She just stared hard at me, and I stared back, before I just grabbed a sponge and gloves and started to help, muscles taunt and breath heavy with sobs that wouldn’t come out.

We worked quietly together, cleaning up the copious amount of blood while remaining completely silent and shielding our thoughts as well as we could. Neither of us wanting to breach the quiet, particularly after what had been said in anger, neither of us dwelling on any of the words tinged with the bitterness of truth.

After we were through she threw the bloody things away, and brought out a pie, pecan, my least favorite, and Sookies absolute favorite.

"It was grans last pie, you want some?" she offered despite the fact that she knew I hated it, a mild peace offering.

"No thanks…" I muttered "I'm going to bed." And I headed up. Sitting in my small room I started to cry quietly, gripping a pillow as a lifeline because hugging Sookie was out of the question at the moment. I threw up the strongest shields I had and looked at my phone; I wanted to talk to Eric…

_I wanted to talk to Eric?_

Suddenly the phone rang

"Hello?" my voice sounded far shakier than I would like, chest hurting like I had run a marathon

" _Sanna_ " It was Eric "I felt you, what has made you so upset?"

"Oh yeah, that ‘I'm in you you're in me’ deal right?" I tried to sound up to my usual snarkiness but we both knew it wasn’t up to par.

"Hmm, something like that. What is wrong?" I honestly was still baffled that he cared enough that he would call to ask.

"Family issues getting aired, unresolved sibling grievances, all of that… lovely stuff" I muttered, hugging the pillow tighter.

"Ah, so sorry my Sanna. I would not know that pain, but I assume it is fierce." His voice was like a calming oasis that I couldn’t even muster up the will to call him out for being ‘understanding’.

"Why are you being so nice?" I weakly asked the emotion of the day finally overcoming me and sadly, he was the most stable thing in my life at the moment.

"Because I care Sanna." His honeyed voice drifted through the speakers and I still couldn't believe it, not an old vampire like him, not with a fairly unique but replaceable person like me.

"Pull the other one hotshot" I scoffed into the phone- feeling a bit more like my usual self.

"Ah Sanna you wound me, of course I care. You're _my_ little Kitten after all" he practically purred into the phone.

"Oh Eric… you always know how to ruin a moment don't you?" I sighed, feeling much better than I did before, there was comfort derived from the familiar. And I hung up, unable to continue a conversation imbued with feelings.

 **Goodnight Eric**  I texted

 **Goodnight Lover**  he texted back and I honestly blushed, 'what the fuck?' I muttered to myself, the arrogant cocky ass.  _Lover? As if._

**_Special Eric Interlude_ **

The phone sounded a dial tone just as he had teased her about his caring, as if she didn't want to talk about it.

_Very skilled at ruining your share of moments as well, aren’t you Sanna._

 Second later his phone buzzed lighting up  **Lover** , not that he had ever called her that, but he liked to think to the future and where it would bring him, hopefully into Sunana Stackhouse's arms and bed.

  **Goodnight Lover**  he texted back, unable to help himself after the emotionally charged conversation that had slightly affected him. It wasn’t the words that were said with her; it was always the feelings and tones the inflicted in her voice that truly made conversation with her so riveting.  She felt so strongly, all the time, he could feel her constantly, the mercurial shift in her moods as fascinating as it was frightening.

He folded his hands and rested his forehead on them thinking back to that morning after he had brought Susana home and lied with her in bed as she healed. He had been worried, more worried than he thought he would be given that they had only known each other for barely a week. And yet… and yet he felt for her, she fascinated him. A delightful contradiction of angry and soft, just like a cat, yet she was still so young, a kitten.

She always was surprising him, angry and stubborn, yet capable of leaps of understanding that quite frankly shocked him. Just that morning she had offered up a wrist to him, and while it wasn't the part he had wanted to drink from, her neck still a smooth blank canvas he longed to be the first to corrupt. Her wrist however, had been an unexpected but welcomed change in her demeanor, her wants and feelings changing to often and unexpectedly for him to have anticipated it.

He sat back and closed his eyes, remembering the taste, the liquid ambrosia that had overtaken him and had been an absolute chore to pull back from, and when his advances had been rebuked (unsurprisingly really) he had had to masturbate until he went under for the day to find some relief from her spell.

He remembered when he had seen her and her sister in Fangtasia, both had been attractive, although if he were to be honest Sookie had been the more eye-catching of the two based on apparel. But Sanna had quickly caught his attention when she soundly rejected Bills charm and challenged him. And the exchange they had had at her apartment afterwards was exhilarating, finally a human both useful and interesting, but she wouldn't yield to him.

The Long Shadow debacle had only solidified his regard; her analysis had been sound and ultimately right. And the anger he had felt when he discovered Long Shadow with his hand around her throat. Despite Godric's warnings of the sacredness of the blood, he felt she was worth saving, worth being tied to, even though he didn't know why just quite yet.

Her very being was special, her gift, her blood, her demeanor, her ambition. He was interested in all of it, but she kept pushing him away despite any headway he made with her and he wasn't quite sure why, only that he wanted her, now more than ever.

Pam entered the office and laughed at him position of his head in his hands,

"Lover girl got you in a twist?"

"Shut up Pam"

"Dear Abby says 'Love Is Trust' and I don't think she trusts you."

"I saved her life!" Eric glared at his child.

"She trusts you with her body, but what about her heart?" Fuck, sometime Pam chose to be insightful. She always chose to be annoying.

"Go away Pam" He sighed already seeing the argument in his future he wouldn't win. Pam was too into 'Dear Abby' to let him get away with whatever she deemed 'fixable'.

In truth she was probably right, Susana Stackhouse had caved to trusting him with her body, but surprisingly not anything else. And the level of interest he held for the young woman made that impossible to ignore, particularly when his ancient human ideals perked up at the sight of her, all lush and curvy and had she been a woman under his rule he would have taken her to wife in a heartbeat and filled her with sons.

Despite the impossibility of that scenario, it served many of his fantasies through the nights as the fangbangers held less and less interest than before. And he savored the images, particularly now that he had her blood and had a good headway into her personal circle.

Eric leaned back as he relished the quiet of his office…

_Oh yes, little Sanna, little Lover, she will be ours soon._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear... I will do this faster... I hope.


	9. Unearthed Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a lot of talking, feels, and Sanna more or less admitting to herself and Eric what she actually wants. and Pam, can't forget Pam.

We buried Gran two days after her death. The whole affair is a memory I'd like to bury deep in the recesses of my mind to never see the light of day. It had turned into a fucking cold war in the house between Sookie and I, years of hidden resentment being brought out by grief and stress as we rushed to get all of Grans affairs in order. Jason, being the shithead he usually is, seemed to be doing V now, of all the stupid choices he had ever made that pretty much took the space as the top contender; particularly because he was _still_ a person of interest in the local murders.

The funeral was a train wreck, everyone seemed to be blaming Sookie for Grans death like I was… and well, it made me feel pretty shitty, she really didn't need both Jason and I hounding her for it, after all, she was getting away from the supernatural now that she dumped Bill. She broke down giving her eulogy, and I caught her before she ran away to cry and just held her as she stiffened in shock, I wasn't known for being physically affectionate, ever. I sent reassuring thoughts her though and waited for the whole goddamned event to be over, particularly after Uncle Bartlett showed his face.

Despite my tentative overtures towards reconciliation with Sookie, I still fled Bon Temps as soon as physically possible after the funeral; I had things to do in the Café and was in no mood to sit around listening to old ladies snipe about everything that happened with their passive aggressive undertones.  It was probably for the best all things considered.

I had missed The Den, honestly with my life getting so derailed recently it was nice to get back to my livelihood and some routine.  And to be frank, had I been any other business owner my employees probably would have robbed me blind, ‘yay me’ for being able to ferret out anything sinister like that.

But the day just dragged by, which was weird because I usually enjoyed being there. The Café had been a nice escape from Bon Temps, after college I had managed to get the building and renovated it sparingly; the result was a cozy place where people could enjoy their orders in peace and comfort. I was proud of it, and it did make a pretty tidy sum due to a pretty good local. It was a good living, I made enough to live on and have some extra to use for enjoying life.

Despite my overall dislike for most people I know, I actually enjoyed going out and doing things like going to concerts, art openings, and museums and the like. My rebirth had created within me a strong love of life and an appreciation for the arts, which I hadn't really had before.

Of course after promising myself that I would do something interesting that day or the next, my period hit midafternoon and as luck would have it, I had run out of painkillers in my desk.  By the time I left around 10 I was curled in on myself and was shuffling as quickly as I could to my car while it felt like an eggbeater had taken residence in my uterus.

Driving home as quickly as I could, all I wanted was to curl up with a hot water bottle and change into my university sweats. I had just walked in when I heard him;

"Hello Lover." And of course Eric was lounging on my small couch like he owned the place, which as far as I know, he didn't.

"What the fuck Eric?" I whisper screamed as I clutched at my midsection, the tense muscles of surprise not having helped at all..

"I merely thought we could use a catching up, you and I, after these eventful days" he responded as his nostrils flared, and when I saw his eyes they were blown out in arousal, the blue suddenly covered by pitch black irises.  Truly, even with the pain my ego could at least appreciate the picture of someone like Eric looking at me like dinner… if I ignored that I actually _could_ be.

"I'd really rather go to bed." I deadpanned instead of reacting physically however, and the next moment he was right next to me, clutching at my shoulders and nuzzling along my throat and mouthing at the junction of my neck and shoulder.

"I bet you do, want some company?" he offered completely serious and not letting up at my neck, searching out my sensitive spots and paying extra attention to them. A remembered, yet all too new feeling of liquid heat seemed to ensnare my body as he increased his efforts, punctuating his resolve as his hands traveled... the arousal melding with pain into a very unexplored sensation that I was feeling very positive about… but no, it was an obscure matter of pride right now.

"Are you seriously turned on because I have my period?" I snipped, pulling away towards my medicine cabinet while he trailed close behind me.

"Don't insult me Sanna, I would be turned on anyway." He was grinning salaciously at me from the doorway, I had no doubts if he could glamor me, he would have done so in a heartbeat.

"You're impossible." I sighed, shuffling back out to grab a bottle of scotch and glass then making my way to the couch and patting at the seat next to me while pouring myself a large drink.

"I'd offer you something but I'm not on the menu tonight, sorry." And I raised my drink in silent cheers before taking a larger sip than usual. His eyes glinted from his place next to me as he shifted to be closer, almost looming over me with his insane height.

"How very disappointing." His voice almost guttural with how gravely it had gotten, his accent coming through a little more as his fingers stroked along the curve of my neck, eyes never leaving the vein.

"Well tough," I took another sip, these past few days had literally driven me to drink, or maybe it was Eric, the jury was undecided at the moment.

"I came to see if you were well, Sanna," I looked up at him, he had gotten a haircut recently, now instead of the shoulder length hair, it was a much more modern short style that really did things for his already ridiculous cheekbones, so unfair.

"Peachy keen." I scoffed as I noticed my glass was empty and refilled it "It seems like death has been the new vogue ever since my family got involved with vampires. Somehow I can't see how the three of us left are going to not die from some sort of supernatural fuckery." I nursed my drink at a somewhat slower pace as his hand tightened on my shoulder,

"You will not end Sanna." He said lowly but fiercely "You are mine, and I protect what is mine." His arm encircled me then pulling me into his lap and the combination of painkillers, hormones, and probably too much scotch had me strangely pleased by this development.

"Good." I closed my eyes and leaned into him, his natural coolness actually feeling pretty nice at the moment "I really hate dying, it's not fun"

"No, I suppose it's not" his voice had a hint of humor in it "Death made me, however, maybe I'm biased for it"

"Shut up you," I swatted at his other shoulder halfheartedly before shifting to a more serious tone "I'm your little alive telepath, let's keep it that way"

"Yes dear." The tone was a touch too exasperated to be serious and I moved to look him in the eye.

"You're not as funny as you think you are." I informed him before patting his cheek "all that time and your jokes suck."

"It's not my jokes that suck _dear."_  He gave me a toothy smile showcasing his fangs.

I reached up, the floaty tipsy feeling I had letting me completely ignore why I shouldn't do that. But he didn't move as my index finger touched it lightly, groaning he opened his mouth and let me continue. It was oddly erotic, touching the once thing that truly physically marked him as different from humans. Underneath me I could tell just how much he seemed to be enjoying it as well, and holy shit no matter how out of it I was, that would not be forgotten anytime soon.

Looking straight into his eyes I let my finger slice on the razor edge of one of them, watched as he kept eye contact while slowly licking at my finger as the blood welled, his saliva stopping the bleeding after a few seconds.

"Why are we doing this?" I asked softly as Eric sucked lightly on my finger, attempting to get more blood or just because I wasn't sure.

"Because Lover," he release the finger but grabbed the hand "you are unique, you are intoxicating, and you are mine. What man would resist that?"

"I never know whether to slap or kiss you." I admitted, feeling my face pull into a pout, definitely tipsy "you say all the right and wrong things." His eyes flickered to my mouth before he shifted me and I was straddling him.

"What words would you have me say?" he asked

"That would be cheating." I informed him, crossing my arms for effect and looking up at him haughtily. He threw his head back and laughed,

"Women." And I started giggling, the mood abruptly shifted and suddenly I hit a breaking point and my giggles turned to laughs to sobs and somehow I found myself clutching at Eric crying. He didn't move away, to his credit, just let me cry and rubbed my back.

"You're a lot nicer than I thought you'd be." I muttered when I had calmed down.

"I am not nice." He immediately disagreed, "but I take care of those who I consider mine" and he stood suddenly, carrying me towards my bedroom and depositing me into it.

"You are tired, rest, I will see you at Fangtasia at 7 tomorrow, my little Lover." before he flew out the window again, it's like the man was against doors.

I lay in bed for a while, the haze of scotch still working on me and allowing me to forget my problems and stave off the inevitable embarrassment of what I said and did tonight. But regrets could come in the morning, for now, everything was ok.

 

_____________

The waking up was just as horrendous as I thought it would be. My cramps were back full force, I had a slight hangover, and overall I just felt like shit, combined with my drunken emotional antics with Eric I was not in a good mood. I went to The Den around lunchtime and holed up in my office doing paperwork, not in any sort of mood to deal with people; even Ben was giving me space.

The day passed slowly for all that it was actually quite busy in the café. I both didn't and did want to go to Fangtasia later, seeing Eric brought both pleasure and annoyance. But at 6:40 I left the café and made the journey, not bothering to change because… well I just didn't want to.

Pulling up it wasn't particularly busy yet, but there was still a line of people, most were tourists who wanted a quick in and out before things got crazy. Bypassing all of them I went straight to the vampire Pam who was checking IDs, decked out in crazier gothic getup than the last time.

"Hey princess, back of the line!" a man yelled from further back, your typical early hours club attendee, a young guy with dark wash jeans and a white t-shirt, this was probably the most excitement he'd ever had, coming here. The idiot, Pam didn't even acknowledge him as I shot him an amused glare and she let me in without checking anything sharing a small smirk at the disgruntled sound he made during the interaction. Making my way inside I immediately had to contend with the mobs of tourists gathers at the front table selling merchandise. Annoyed I could only try and work my way through slowly, trying to stay under the obnoxious peoples radar.

"Hey! You have to wait in line!" a woman standing with her husband barked at me as I crossed in front of them to get back to Erics office.

"No I don't." I scoffed, it was more my mood making a snappy retort than any aggressiveness on my part but the lady seemed to take offense as she snatched at my arm.

"You aren't the hot shit you think you are, back of the line!" she sneered and I promptly decided I didn't like that phrase at all. I pulled my arm out of her hold and squared off against her, I was fucking sick of people bitching at me.

"Yes actually I am, I'm here for business with the owner, not to get my rocks off fawning over a T-shirt because you somehow found the balls to even step onto the premises, get lost." I sneered as I swept off, it was almost a shame I wasn't wearing a long coat for effect, but still, it was awesome. I got back to Erics office with no other problems and opened the door, finding him standing right at the other side grinning down at me.

"You really should be nicer to my paying customers Sanna." He admonished with a grin, completely enjoying the entire situation as I blushed, Vampire hearing was something to be feared.

"Yes well," I cleared my throat, my momentary victory forgotten in the face of Eric being…. Eric "I don't like people touching me without my permission." It was true, while I had never gave Eric too much shit for his invasion of my personal space for some weird reason, that didn't mean I was fine with other people taking liberties with my person, it enraged me and brought back the same feelings as that day with Uncle Bartlett and the knife… and ones from… before.

"I see…" he was looking at me funny, like he could see the untold story that had played out in my mind a few seconds ago.

"I don't think you do" I rolled my eyes, "But enough of that, what can I do you for boss man?" the snarky phrase slipping out before I realized the blatant innuendo. Sure enough, looking up at his face he totally was going to run with it.

"You can do me for anything  _Lover_ , however I had asked you here of other purposes, you will be reading the club tonight, it is part of our deal" his hand touched my face, stroking slightly as he watch for my reaction.

"Fine, but I do have to be up early tomorrow." I acquiesced; it was a grating realization that I did actually like to spend time with Eric; his company was growing on me… a lot like fungus.

Grinning as though he knew the track my thoughts were on he stepped back to take his shirt off and shrug on a sexy leather vest, flashing a devastating smolder my way to which I couldn't contain a small noise at the back of my throat, the man rocked leather.

Immediately I was gathered up into his arms and his lips were on mine. Eric and I had a seductive, erotic sort of dance going on in our latest interactions, that I would admit, but everything seemed utterly PG as I learned that he was a fucking _fantastic_ kisser. I had made out with a few boys in school, and in my previous life’s experience I had had many relationships in which to draw a basis of comparison, Eric easily outdid them all.

He was everywhere and nowhere, hot and cold, fierce and soft, and I don't know how he managed it but somehow we had gone from kissing in the middle of his office to both our shirts being off while I straddled him in his chair.

"Wh-what? Eric?" I was so disoriented from him I apparently couldn't even form coherent sentences, lovely.

"Yesss _Sanna_ " he all but hissed as he drifted from my mouth to my neck, licking and sucking without his fangs puncturing anything, our two statements not matching in intent at all.

"You taste of sunshine." He whispered almost reverently as he lowered his face again to my cleavage, which was incredibly perky with my bra still on. He stayed there mouthing at the curves as I attempted to catch my breath, my heaving lungs doing him more of a favor than they should.

"I guess your jokes can suck if you spent your time perfecting _that_ " I commented, finding the situation a little hilarious, I was slowly getting used to the idea of getting with Eric, and much as I was spouting off denial – it was also sort of an inevitability, despite his still being an asshole the majority of the time. Seriously.

He threw his head back and laughed as I did, before the vibrations of our mirth started to take our minds back to where they had been before, the friction building up between us

"I'm not having sex with you in your bar." I stated and his face got a pinched but ultimately resigned look as he stilled his movements eyeing me in an almost thoughtful manner before I stroked my hand down his chest stopping right before his pants as he groaned.

"I'm not saying never, just not in your bar." I said softly unable to lie about the eventuality of my surrender in that moment, his eyes flew open as he stared at me, almost daring me to go back on my word.

"It's a promise Lover." He vowed as I slid off his lap and searched for my shirt finding it thrown halfway across the room. I straightened up to see him smirking at me from his desk, the clamor of the bar already intruding on the moment now that I wasn't so focused on him.

I felt lighter though, like my worries had just gone away for the time being.

With Eric, I felt relaxed, safe and strong.

Fuck, I was in deep.

It was a wildly different experience lounging up at the throne with Eric this time. I still got the waves of envy and hatred from the crowed because I was hogging him apparently, but the rush of power I felt from up here while everyone else was down there… well it was awesome.

"Those two girls in the corner are underage and that couple over there are V addicts looking for a score." I gestured to both of the parties and silently two vampires from around the room dealt with the problems as soon as I had said the words.

"You're enjoying yourself" Eric was smiling, enthralling the 'vermin' as he enjoyed their misery; really, it was like this guy could never lose.

"It's still freaky when you do that." I responded, still scanning the crowed, I never knew there could be so many synonyms for 'slut', it was impressive.

"hmmm…" he just hummed noncommittally looking over the crowed as well, as everyone started to preen when his gaze swept passed them, it was hilarious "I am glad this amuses you."

"I haven't had this much fun in a long time." I admitted, I think it was because the thoughts I was hearing were so typical and basic, all of them saying the same thing in different ways. I normally didn't derive pleasure from the overload of thoughts but just listening to some of the shit that people were thinking in here had me fighting back laughter quite often. Eric gave me an odd look,

"Strange you enjoy this now when you were so against it before." His tone demanded an answer

"I didn't want to be part of the supernatural, but now that the cat's out of the bag, I might as well learn to enjoy myself" the beat of the music was catchy and I closed my eyes as I nodded to the beat.

"Of course you would enjoy being mine, I take much better care of my things than Bill does." He smirked

"Sookie isn't Bills anymore" I frowned a bit, I would have thought he would have known seeing as he seemed to keep tabs on everything as far as I knew.

"Hmmm, we'll see" he answered ambiguously as my frown deepened, but the middle of a club of eavesdroppers. Soon enough my attention was taken by a girl preparing to offer herself to Eric as an alternative to me, I was actually interested to see where this would go. She sauntered up swaying her hips, eyes focused on Eric.

"I offer myself, master" she tilted her head exposing a neck that contained a few scattered fang marks peaking up from under her lashes coyly. Eric made no move other than looking at her without interest,

"Get out of my sight" he demanded, I wanted to believe that he did it because he just wanted me, but I doubted it. It was the one drawback I could see on the horizon, Eric was old, handsome, and influential, the likelihood of him staying faithful was pretty low. And dammit I wanted him for myself, I didn't like sharing, there was a reason I was trying to deny him as long as possible… this was part of it.

The girl pouted and lingered for another minute without acknowledgement as Eric stared at me, as if to say ' _see, see what I did?'_ it gave the night a sour note, I didn't want him going through these motions like a puppy preforming… although then the mere thought that Eric would be anything like a preforming puppy, still, it felt to stage like for me to take any comfort from it.

Eric frowned at me, sensing my unease at the situation that didn't abate with his rejection of the girl. I smiled a bit at him as I checked my watch, it read 2AM.

"It's getting late; I need to be up early Eric." I deliberately used his name for those listening, there was a certain distinction being a vampires human could give you depending on the relationship.

"Very well" he acquiesced, standing up suddenly and holding out a hand for me. I took it and was lead outside to where my car was parked by Eric himself.

"You are not happy with me?" he questioned, stopping me from getting in as I contemplated my answer, the more time I spent with him the easier it was to understand how this connection worked.

"You keep saying I'm yours right?" I started tentatively, trying to make him listen rather than react

"You are mine." He stated firmly, looking down at me with a frown

"Yes I am," his face relaxed a little "But are you mine?" I asked coolly, before getting in my car and leaving the club. I couldn't believe I had asked that, I shouldn't expect him to answer in the affirmative, but a large part of me couldn't stand having whatever we were building being one sided on my part.

I wanted him, it wasn't a secret, and he wanted me, that was obvious too. But I didn't want this buildup to just lead to being an afterthought to him in the face of all the men and women who wanted him.

Getting into my apartment I quickly found my bedroom and got settled with a few sleeping pills. I didn't need to stay up mulling over how dramatic my life was now

 

* * *

 

He didn't really understand what drew him towards her, at first it was her talents admittedly, but quickly all the little things had added up. Her scent, her taste, her general demeanor that was both prickly, yet she was kind, no matter what she wanted people to think.

Her asking him if he was hers had thrown him for a loop admittedly; He had thought she was content being his, despite the short amount of time that had actually been in place.

He wanted to blame the girl tonight that had interrupted their time together, but somehow he knew the problem was much deeper than that. He had rejected the girl because despite the relatively decent smell of her blood, it could not compare even a bit to what he had experienced in the two times he had had Sanna's blood.

Her blood was as he told her, like sunlight, full of light and life, it brought out his covetous nature at the very thought of anyone else finding out just how she tasted, and they wouldn't now that she was  _his._  He hadn't gotten both of the telepath's which was a shame, the sisters were both appealing. Yet somehow it nagged at him that he might prefer just having Sanna rather than her sister as well who, although equally appealing in sent, seemed not her equal in wit and sense.

He had hopped his rejection of the girl would encourage Sanna more, prove that she should yield to him, despite her promises earlier that night he didn't want that treat denied to him, a virginal telepath that smelled and tasted of sunshine who would be his.

Instead she was uncertain, and her words  _"are you mine?"_ she wanted monogamy… interesting. He supposed that wasn't too surprising given humans in general and her upbringing, even if she had never expressed overt religious views he expected that it had left its mark.

It just confused him why he was actually considering answering “yes”.

 

* * *

 

 

I stayed at the café all of the next day, reveling in the normalcy of it. I was in a surprisingly good mood as well, enjoying my patrons and co-workers more than usual, it seemed like the influx of thoughts last night made a normal day seem quiet in comparison. I was in heaven; everything was a dull murmur in my mind rather than the usual clamor.

Everything went pretty smoothly all day, no mishaps with overly disgruntled customers. But around 8 someone familiar walked into the bar, but with a wildly different appearance than I was used to. Pam strolled in looking like an everyday soccer mom with a cookie cutter outfit… but far more glamorous, I doubt any normal soccer mom could afford what she was wearing although now she had truly earned my admiration for just being… Pam.

"Hello Susana," she drawled glancing around the place her nose wrinkling at my usual clientele of college students "is there somewhere we can talk… privately?"

"Of course" I made my way to my office, Pam following close behind "Love your shoes by the way" I threw out, they _were_ fabulous.

"Good taste." She stated taking a seat on my guest chair, owning the room in a single movement, she was so awesome.

"What was that?" she smirked, and I realized I had said that out loud.

"You're awesome." I reiterated unashamedly "I have a serious lady crush on you right now"

"oh really," she practically purred leaning closer "how serious?"

"Not as serious as you'd like it to be" I said with raised eyebrows, so apparently that was a thing, if Eric wasn't so _Eric,_ I'd be half tempted.

"Pity…" her eyes giving me a once over with a hint of approval in her gaze, faint, but it was there.

"So you didn't invade my cafe just to flirt, I mean, that would be cool, but I know you didn't." I rambled, twirling a pencil in my hand as she sat, just looking at me with an assessing gaze.

"You're Eric's now." She started off with that, I just nodded for her to continue "and with that comes some guidelines that I think you should know before this gets any further, my eyes grew wide,

"Is this the equivalent of a vampire shovel talk?" I asked, unable to help myself, it was obvious Pam was someone to Eric, he had probably made her, and now she was making sure I knew the rules in an oddly cute-but-totally-bad-ass kind of way… how sweet. Her face crumpled into a sneer at my comment

"Hardly," she scoffed "But your position as Eric's human comes with some extras that I doubt he has gotten around to explaining while he was sniffing around you." I tried to hold back my laughter, but her expression told me it wasn't working.

"Eric doesn't take humans in general, so you must be special besides that quirky little mind thing you have" she gestured to my head "and you might be there for business, but you will dress accordingly in Fangtasia." She finished, and holy shit, it wasn't a shovel talk at all…

"You're jealous I went in my regular clothes last night?" I asked incredulously as her mouth set in a firm line.

"Eric will be texting you shortly for your presence at 11, before then we are going to go and find club appropriate attire." She stated firmly as I smirked, she so was, and if this is how she preferred to dress, I could see why this may be a sore spot with her.

"Let's go." She stood up briskly and swept out of the office and out the doors, presumable to her car as I shouted to the night staff that I was leaving for the day. Following her out and getting in my car to follow her she started off in the direction of a small out of the way strip mall I had never gone to. If soon became obvious as to why when we pulled in and I saw the types of shops that inhabited the place… It was both thrilling and embarrassing as all hell.

Going into one it became clear she was a regular by how the staff nearly tripped over themselves to come to her aid as she threw garments at me to try on. The entire process was annoying, as most of the clothes were ridiculously hard to zip and snap into place, but in the end my outfit was amazing. Black pleather pants with a black waist cincher over a blood red tank top with a daring neckline, the whole thing did amazing things to my curves and left me feeling like I could fucking take on anyone while wearing it, particularly when they brought out the heels that I could swear were able to double as a weapon.

Wearing the outfit out Pam seemed overly pleased, and upon further inquiry I found out that she enjoyed spending copious amounts of Eric's money on clothing, but she also admitted,

"I think he won't mind when he sees this." And my mind went to cloud 9 with a bad ass bitch like Pam telling me that. I did look good. Sure enough around 10:30pm my phone went off and it was Eric requesting me, after getting there I strutted into Fantasia like nothing could ever cross me and win, the self-confidence I derived from that alone made the entire night worth it.

Going up to Eric's Office and letting myself in ended up being a very gratifying experience for me, his eyes widened and before I could get a word in edgewise his mouth was on mine and I was back against the door…

Pam really was the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is ridiculously late.... Ugh RL is ... well it is.


	10. Two Titans Meet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which this story earns its E rating for sexy times and Sanna is happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just got HBO the other day and am re-watching the entire series again for the first time in ... years. For all of you who have read the already posted version on Fanfiction... that will NO LONGER be the correct version of this story as my muse has pointed out several plot points I would like to more elaborate on than I had before. YES there is the tag of Eric/Sanna/Godric, but it is minor compared to Eric/Sanna. just forewarning you. Please comment if you have questions or concerns of if you like the story, I LOVE FEEDBACK.

"I'm still not having sex with you in your bar."

I gasped out once he had moved to mouthing my neck sans fangs, not stopping even at my words. In fact he just pressed on more eagerly,

"you look good enough to _eat"_ He groaned nosing down to the deep V my top had and burying his face there, startling a laugh out of me, ruining the mood, he glared up at me. I could see in his eyes how much it grated on him he couldn't just glamour of command me to give in, I smirked amusedly back,

"Pam thought I could use work appropriate clothing." I said as innocently as possible as his eyes narrowed.

" _Pam"_ he hissed out grinding his teeth as he let me down, his flexing jaw did things for me.

"Anyways…" I tried to segue as he stood there stewing for a minute, "what did you need me for?" I wasn't scheduled to work tonight and while I suppose that had never seemed to stop him from calling me out of the blue; Pam's sudden appearance tonight had me intrigued.

"Yes that…" he trailed off head cocked to the side, listening to something, "but before we begin, your brother has just entered the premises…" I frowned, Jason was one of the last people I could imagine going to a vampire bar for any reason… but then again, with recent events I suppose it made entirely _too much_ sense, I sighed.

"Jason is here?” I asked, mostly just stalling for time as my mind raced.

"Quite" His eyes were narrowed at me now, sensing the abrupt change in my demeanor no doubt.

"Fucking hell, I'm going to go see what he's all about. Whatever happens please don't kill him?" I asked, no doubt Jason would say something stupid. It was bad enough he was on V, but coming here where I may have not been to protect his ass? God, maybe brain cells were sexist or something in this family, because clearly even Sookie had more sense than our idiot brother.

Heading out to the floor I caught wind of another mind I was familiar with, what was Lafayette doing here? Craning my head around I couldn't see him, but his mental voice was fairly quiet, he might be outside the club for all I knew.

I put Lafayette out of my mind for the moment as I approached Jason at the bar where… shit, he was trying to hit on the new guy for V.

"Jason." I barked sharply getting his attention; he was in a t-shirt and jeans, sweaty with dilated eyes.., definitely either high or in withdrawal, probably the latter.

"Su?" he sounded incredulous, like this was the last place he had expected to find me "what are you doing here? Dressed like  _that?"_  he went from confused to alpha male, angry that his baby sister would put a foot into a place like this dressed to kill.

"Shut it Jay, if I wasn't your sister you'd be fine with his." I snapped back, watching the red rise in his cheeks as he got angry at me, undermining his authority was too easy; the fragility of the male ego was vastly entertaining.

"That’s not the point Su! You a fangbanger now?!" apparently my exit from childhood and becoming an adult with her own life and choices was too much for him to handle. It was the wrong thing to say in a bar where I was the owners human, the vampires around us bared their fangs at him, Eric decided to come out at that point, Pam hovering in the background.

"I would think being her brother; you would have kinder words for her." He smoothly slid right next to me and hooked an arm around my shoulders; Jason stumbled back a bit with the sudden appearance of the huge intimidating mass that is Eric.

"What have you done to her?" he demanded puffing up in an attempt to make himself bigger, it failed… laughably.

"Can the caring brother act Jason, we’ve barely talked in months, and now I want you to leave." I demanded, annoyed that I was yet again, part of a spectacle in Fangtasia. That was when a young attractive thing ran up to him and started to pull him away, pretending as if she knew him; she couldn't fool me, but I wasn't complaining at the moment.

"What interesting relatives you have," Pam drawled from her corner of the bar, those around us returning to their business "how did you survive?"

"Oh, I have my ways." I rolled my eyes as Eric's arm tightened around me and I still could hear Lafayette distantly, it was starting to bug me.

"Let us get back to business Sanna." He steered me back towards the office, I was inclined to be more agreeable since he let Jason walk out of the bar intact. Getting into his office he sat behind his desk with folded hands as I sat on the couch he had in the corner.

"I will need you to travel in the next week or so to Dallas." He started with no preamble, his eyes holding not trance of the indulgent Eric I had come to know, rather the vampire sheriff he was.

"I can get people to cover," Instantly agreeing to the serious look on his face "what for?" I couldn't help but ask. This was a different Eric than I had known, he usually was a little shit about everything and then some and I hadn't seen him serious for many reasons yet.

"A vampire named Godric is missing; he's very old, very powerful… I need you, and your sister to help find him."

"You need Sookie too?" I asked incredulously, a tinge of jealousy running through me,  _wasn't I enough?_

"Two telepaths are better than one, I will be sending her ahead with Bill and you will be following with me" the jealousy left as soon as it started

"Bill?" I asked slowly, eyes narrowing

"Yes it seems as though they are as you say, 'on again'?" I was caught between wanting to laugh and anger, despite not having a say in my sisters life Bill had always rubbed me the wrong way… I had been _so_ happy when she had said they were through.

"I see." My lips tightening into a line, "and Godric is important to you?" I asked seriously, looking at him as though daring his to lie to me.

He nodded quick, unwilling to verbalize the words that would possibly make him vulnerable in a club. I nodded back; understanding that this wasn't a matter to discuss here, the quiet did however bring to light what had been escaping me all night. I glared at him,

"Are you keeping Lafayette here?" I demanded, his eyes flew open

"Your range is more impressive than I thought." My nostrils flared in anger

"Why is he here?!"

"He was selling V" I stopped at that, it sounded like something he would do, but I didn't want him dead for it, particularly from Eric.

"Promise me you won't kill him." I asked seriously for the second time that night. I didn't ask or demand his release, I knew that much was impossible right away, but I didn't want him dead, he was almost more family than Jason.

"I will consider it."

"Eric…" I begged in my tone, unwilling to vocalize actual words to do so, Lafayette was a good guy, even if he made shit choices.

"Fine, if it means so much to you I will do so, Sanna, but you will owe me."

"So we're keeping score now?" I frowned, he froze

"Perhaps you won't owe me, but It's a rather large favor to ask…" he acquiesced

"Maybe so, but I would be grateful." We reached an unspoken agreement, but it felt like there was still this wall between us that was always there, but was only brought to notice when we had conversations like this…

I smiled sadly, Lafayette was someone who I did care for, despite what Sookie or Jason would maybe say about me, I did care for people besides myself; it just wasn't easy for me to express it. My personality now was too mercurial for me to handle much of the time, which lead to overcompensating when trying to control myself, thus leading people to think I didn't care about anything.  It was a fine line I walked, between this life and my last.

"I will see it done then" he nodded, I glanced at the clock, finding it rather late, time always seemed to fly by when I was here, it was never just a peaceful night at the vampire club, wishful thinking indeed.

"You know I never wanted to be involved with vampires, but… I think I'm happy that since I had to, it's with you." It sort of came out of nowhere, but I couldn't help it, I had seen and heard the horror stories of vampires and their pets before, I knew for a fact Eric was better than I would have expected for a vampire, despite his age and power in the area, he didn't force me into anything, didn't lie, didn't hurt me.

"Trust me Lover, the pleasure is all mine."

 

* * *

 

 

"So Rene was the killer?" I asked Sookie as we sat together sunbathing later in the week, trying to catch up a bit after the whirlwind of crazy that had been happening this past month or so.  She was leaving tonight for Dallas, with Eric and I following late afternoon tomorrow to let her get a more accurate picture of the situation.

"Yeah," she sighed shifting onto her stomach to match me "he was after all girls who were with vampires, Sam help me take him down, and I got him with a shovel." She summed it up quietly with a hint of pride.

"Shit Sook, I had suspicions that someone might come after you but I thought you'd be safe with a vampire and Sam both nearby… and I was kinda mad about Gran…" I trailed off, a bit ashamed that I hadn't offered or done more. Life in general was busy but life with vampires and other shit thrown in was all consuming. Sookie with Bill and my being Eric's put a new facet on everything, we had entered a different society and despite only being active at night, vampires demanded much of your time, like toddlers with an on/off switch…

"Oh my lord Su!" Sookie gasped out catching my last trail of thought

"It's totally true." I stated reaching down for my iced tea but knocking it down all over my clothes I had brought, "SHIT!"

"It's not that bad, just borrow something of mine and throw those in the laundry"

"All you have is short shorts and dresses."

"It won't kill you to dress like a girl every now and then Su, you look nice in dresses"

"But they don't have pockets and I can't bend over and people look at me too much."

"Are you complaining about being attractive?" Sookie lifted her head and eyed me, "you're the one who lives in the city and doesn't have the moniker 'Crazy Sookie'"

"Yeah but ugh, men!" I complained good naturedly enjoying the ease we seemed to have gotten back into with the sun putting us in a good mood.

"What about Eric?" she asked, wanting more details about the vampire she couldn't particularly stand but would admit was smoking hot.

"Eric is his own classification, the same goes for whatever we are." I decided, shifting in the fading sunlight as I prepared to get my things together, Sookie had much the same idea.

"uh huh," she rolled her eyes "you're always so dramatic Su, you like him."

"Of course I like him, doesn't make it any simpler, nothings simple with Vampires Sook."

"Don't I know…"the topic edged towards something darker "Uncle Bartlett died…" she whispered

"I know." I had gotten the call two days ago, "it was about time he croaked, I should have done it when I had the chance."

"I think Bill did it." That brought me up short.

"And you're upset?" i asked tentatively, reading her discomfort.

"I didn't want him too." She whispered, to upset over a happy thing in my opinion.

"I think you should just be happy the worlds a better place now…" I started, looking out the window as she went to grab me a dress to put on over my swimsuit and to get her bags; I was driving her to the airport with Bill.

"Aw come on Sook!" the dress she pulled for me made me look like vampire bait and she  _knew_ we were stopping by Fangtasia before the airport. It was a light blue that matched my eyes and brought out the tan and sun highlights in my hair… I looked great, in a 'going to church' sense, not a 'i'm stopping by a vampire bar where Eric is' style…

"You look good Su!" she had changed and had her bags packed, it was almost time for Bill to get up and join us.

"Thanks…" I muttered, getting my stuff and keys and helping her load her bags. Bill came over 20 minutes later, a bag of his own.

"Hello Susana." My mouth tightened at the use of my full name, I didn't favor it.

"William" I nodded at him coolly, smirking inwardly at his raised eyebrow, that's right Bill, this Stackhouse is no little southern lady.

"I must thank you for the ride, it is most convenient."

"No problem." We all got in and I took off, pealing out of Bon Temps and making good time to Shreveport.

It was a little over halfway there that the road started getting misty, which was odd for this time of year, I slowed the car. It was then up ahead that a strange figure was standing out in the middle of the road… now in any other circumstance I wouldn't be as alarmed as I was now… after all this is the south and weird shit tends to happen at night, usually with alcohol involved. However this was not a normal human silhouette and after my crash landing into the world of the supernatural I wasn't about to stick around and find out what it was.

"What's that?" Sookie whispered as Bill was looking wide eyed at it.

"Oh fuck no." I muttered stomping on the gas and making to veer around the figure that was faster than I thought it would be. The screech of metal as we passed by told me that my car had not won this confrontation as we sped away and I broke almost every traffic law to pull into Fantasia in record time, I was past worrying about whatever  _that_  was and focused instead on my car… my car that now had four long scratches, completely parting the outside, gouging deep and utterly unexplainable to any mechanic.

"What. The. Fuck!" I hissed, ice flooding my veins, vision tunneling to where my car was torn up, tuning out Sookie and Bill. My car that I needed, my car that I had bought with my own money from the used lot, the car I maintained meticulously so it would work forever and I wouldn't have to buy another, I was  _pissed._  I came back to the present with the feeling Eric's presence surrounding me as his hands stroked my mostly bare shoulders.

"Sanna, don't worry it will be taken care of" he was muttering as he buried his face into my neck and hummed, inhaling and circling his arms around my front, ignoring everyone else. I slowly relaxed into his hold, exhaling as I calmed myself down, sinking into the feeling of being held and leaned my head back into his shoulder, inadvertently giving him more space to nuzzle into,

"You were in the sun" he groaned almost reverently, his tongue licking along the column of my neck

"Hmm yes, but enough of this" I shrugged out of his hold and faced the captivated audience of Bill Sookie and Pam. Eric had disgruntled expression on his face as I pulled away but quickly went back to his usual demeanor.

"Yes, enough of  _that…"_  he eyed me, giving my entire outfit a once over and licking his lips "business to finish." He looked at Sookie and Bill.

"We just go ahead and listen in tonight and before you get there tomorrow right?" Sookie chimed in after a minute, surprised by our display after I had downplayed Eric and I's relationship this afternoon.

"Indeed, I have a packet made up for you with information and housing arrangements" he nodded to Pam who zipped back indoors to retrieve it and handed it off to Bill "Sanna and I will be meeting you tomorrow, that is as detailed as I will get for now, everything should be explained in there" he nodded to the folder Bill held.

"Right, well then we should be on our way" Bill piped up "Susana, if you would be so kind…" he gestured to my torn up excuse for a car.

"Actually I think Pam will take you the rest of the way" Eric interjected slinging am arm around my shoulder.

"I am?!" Pam sounded absolutely thrilled at the prospect… not, her face twisting into a sneer as she looked down her nose at the two of them.

"You are" Eric confirmed mildly with an edge of command in his tone

"Fine then." She spun off and flounced toward what I assumed was her car as Bill followed before turning and waiting for Sookie.

"I'll see you soon?" she asked, eyes wondering over the two of us, her mind letting me know the inquisition I was in for when she got me alone again.

"Yeah Sook, I'll see you tomorrow." I smiled, I was actually kind of relieved I didn't have to drive the car to the airport in the state that it was now; she smiled back and turned to leave with Bill.

"Thanks for that," I turned to Eric again as they sped off "I'll have a hard enough time getting this thing home." I turned to look at it again before his pulled me back to face him.

"Oh no my little Lover,  _Sanna_ , I said it would be taken care of." he started pulling me towards the cars as well, of course he drove a fast little red thing with a vanity plate, typical Eric

"Hmm?" I asked as I got in, getting a thrill from being in a car this awesome.

"Oh yes, you come here dressed like that, smelling like that, and with all the fury of a Valkyrie? Tonight, we have plans Sanna." His eyes raked over me again and his fangs popped out prompting a shiver of excitement from me "I believe they will take all night in fact."

"Well then," getting the hint of exactly what he wanted, what I wanted, what was going to happen…

_"Lead on, Eric."_

The ride to Eric's house was both the longest and shortest length of time I've ever experienced. We didn't talk as he sped at inhuman (literally) speeds towards the outer edges of the city. I tried to focus on the blurring scenery but it was relatively impossible as his had was rubbing small circles on my inner thigh slowly going higher right underneath the hem but retreating just before he would touch my swimsuit bottoms. It was maddening, here he was barely touching me but it was all I could do not to squirm in my seat like a kid and press into the touch. I had tried at first but he would stop until I was still again, his smirk telling me this was only for buildup before we got to our destination, the place where all these weeks of teasing and sexual frustrations would culminate into what was promising to be blissful oblivion.

"How much longer?" I hissed out as his hand retreated for the umpteenth time

"Why? Impatient to get your hands on me Sanna?" on his face was a shit eating grin but his blown out pupils gave him away to be just as turned on as I was… possibly more, good, it would make retaliation much more satisfying,

"Oh I wouldn't say impatient…" I moved my hand from where it clutched the center console and cupped the front of his jeans, stroking and squeezing the very impressive length of him harshly

"Unless you are?"

my tone was innocent but I knew my expression was anything but as I watched him freeze for a moment from under my lashes, his nostrils flaring as he wrenched back his hand from my leg and did some driving techniques I would have been impressed by had I not been otherwise preoccupied. Tearing into a driveway and bringing the car to a screeching halt a moment I barely had time to register the movement before my door was flung open and I was being pushed against the door inside his house dazed with a mixture of anticipation and whiplash.

"You have no  _idea_  Lover how impatient I am." He groaned as we devoured each other, my legs wrapped around his waist as he held me as close as possible making our way down the hallway, stopping intermittently to christen a new patch of wall, I gripped his hair and pulled his head back fiercely

"Then fucking _take me_ _Viking_ " I demanded, my voice coming out far huskier than I had thought it could get, his fangs snapped back out and what little blue left of his eyes vanished as we sped to his bedroom, a light tight room in the basement.

" _I will,_ oh I will, again and again and again Sanna, I'll have you screaming, I'll have  _you."_

God, his tone was almost borderline threatening and it was sexy as fuck. Abstaining from sex when you are fully aware of just what you are missing for this long made everything ten times better than the terrific sex it already would have been. Our clothes disappeared in a blink, and I'm fairly certain none of them would be serviceable ever again, but that was a concern for later.

I was thrown onto the bed with little fanfare, finding him prowling up over me almost immediately after, the urgency still there but held back as we both took each other in.

And what a sigh it was.

I knew he was attractive, it wasn't a secret, but the sight of him in his fully glory was positively _mouthwatering_.

A Scandinavian Adonis with perfectly sculpted muscles gained from a hard light of fighting and surviving topped off with a little happy trail of gold leading the way to the most impressive manhood I had ever seen, perfectly formed with its size matching the rest of him, huge. I trailed a hand down his chest to tug on the little trail of hair as I looked up at him, his eyes sweeping over my form lingering on my substantial chest and lower. I had never been particularly self-conscious, from what I heard from others and their reactions too me I knew I was attractive, but the way Eric was looking at me made me feel like a fucking goddess.

"Sanna…" He groaned his accent showing through stronger than ever as his head dipped to mouth along my neck towards my chest, taking his own time to thoroughly taste and map out my skin, fangs scraping along but never actually breaking the skin.

"Eric!" I gasped out as he finally took a nipple in his mouth, sucking harshly, teasing the other with his hand in a similar rhythm

"Don't stop." I all but begged bringing my hands to thread through his hair as he lavished attention on the chest he had been so enamored with for weeks.

"So good" His voice was muffled a bit as he muttered some other ancient sounding words, slowly nuzzling his way downwards despite my sounds of protest which soon stopped in favor of moans as he attacked my clit.

Having the benefit of hundreds of years in which to practice his craft I would say Eric was a true artist, lapping and sucking with the skill and precision of someone who knew exactly what he was doing.

"So good Sanna, so right, cum for me." He demanded adding a finger, then two stretching me and crooking them up into exactly the right spot that had me seeing stars as I blindly obeyed and the earth seemingly shattered, vaguely registering my voice brokenly sobbing out his praises as I came down from the high. I looked down at him where he looked just like the cat that got the cream, which I guess he sort of had, and now I wanted to even the score. As he came back up tracing my lines and curves as he went I pushed at his chest, indicating I wanted him on his back to which he eagerly agreed, flipping so I was then on top on him as he stretched out, showcasing everything I now had to play with.

"Yessss" he hissed out as I scored my nails down his chest before moving to trace back up, paying attention to all the angles and curves that made up the most perfect specimen of man I had ever seen. Leaning down I mouthed at his neck, biting down harshly when he moaned at a certain spot, his hips bucked up

"Sanna!" It was his turn to groan out as I licked over the faint and quickly healing mark I had made down to his chest and further down still, taking the appropriate time to worship his abs and all their glory. Nosing my way down the V of his hips I looked up to meet his eyes as I came into contact with his cock for the first time. His hands automatically went to rest on my head as I slowly licked up and down, tightening my hand around the base and starting to slowly stroke as he groaned, his eyes never leaving mine

"I've never done this… any of this" I admitted before starting anything, his fingers tightening minutely in my hair

"I know" his voice fierce in victory? Anticipation? I wasn't sure, but I also didn't care as his attention stayed riveted to where I had my mouth poised just above the head, tonguing the underside teasingly before I took as much as I could, my hands paying attention to the rest. Despite having done this a lifetime ago, years of only seeing porn and then starting off on a huge guy like Eric made for a slightly awkward start…  I powered through, making it up with enthusiasm as he looked torn between throwing his head back or continuing to watch me, groaning and muttering a stream of what had to be his native tongue. Soon enough though, I found myself back on my back, his fingers in me again, stretching with purpose,

"Yield to me Sanna." He demanded, his eyes blown out and fangs bared, looking every inch the vampire Viking he was as he worked me open

"Yes Eric, yes" I moaned as the heat built up again despite the uncomfortable twinges of his large fingers.

"Yessss Sanna, So wet, so good" I brought my legs around his back, pressing him closer as he lined up and slowly slid in

"Ahh" I protested slightly as the stretch burned and I became mildly uncomfortable with the large new mass in my body

"Eric…" I begged for him to stop, to move, to do… something as he slid in all the way amazingly enough.

"Sanna" he gasped out, looking like he had to concentrate to say anything in English "so good, so _tight_ "

"More, Eric, Move!" I begged as his hips stuttered to life slowly pumping in and out before moving faster and faster, my orgasm building up quickly

"Drink from me" his voice interrupted the singular focus of my buildup as one of hands went up to his neck

"Yesss" I hissed out, unable to refuse anything as I was so close to ecstasy, his nail made a quick incision on his neck and I pushed up and latched on, biting and sucking as I felt his fangs enter me before the world came crashing down and I screamed, we both hit our ends as the first drops were exchanged amplifying everything tenfold and causing me to black out.

I came to a few minutes later, spooned against Eric as he lapped at my neck, hands tracing all over my body, caressing and teasing

"Welcome back, _Lover_ " his tone lusty and gleeful as I turned around to look at him, his grin infectious as I ran my hands all over his chest returning the favor,

"Eric" I acknowledge him with a small yawn as his grin suddenly got even more mischievous,

"Don't get tired on me now Sanna" he demanded pulling me close, "I believed I promised you the entire night."

I gulped,

"Eric!"

….

" _Eric!"_


	11. Enter the Maker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> GODRIC IS HERE!!!!

Waking up after a night of marathon sex with a well-endowed vampire should have made me sore as hell…

But upon moving around a bit I found I felt _fantastic_. It wasn't like those cliché stories where I suddenly felt different after having sex because I wasn't a virgin anymore, no. Looking in the mirror I could barely recognize myself for a moment, the person looking back at me was me… but _more_.

I have always had a sharper face than my siblings who favored the rounder/cuter look, and after a lifetime of scowls and frowns there had been a few lines here and there starting to make themselves known, nothing horrible, but it had made me look older than my age. Now instead of looking like Sookies twin I looked, well, I looked amazing.

My skin had smoothed out and taken on a taunt look over my face making my features more defined and striking rather than tired and boney. My hair seemed to have taken on new life, hanging down two shades lighter like sun kissed gold and healthy instead of the split ends I knew I had yesterday. Everything about me felt 100x better, toner, and fitter than I had yesterday. Almost hysterically I started laughing at my reflection in the mirror,

_I guess sex with Eric really was a life changing event_

I now looked like I was younger than I was, an elfin youthfulness seemed to have overtaken my features and I seemed to glow with some otherworldly aura. I had seen people use V, and while yeah, they looked better for a day or two it was never by much, just a wrinkle less here, less frizz there. But here I was with a few sips of Eric's blood looking like I had walked out of a fairy tale or something… like a Tolkien elf but shorter. It was mildly terrifying.

Looking at him in the dim lighting of the light tight room he was spread on his back, still naked and barely covered by the sheet. Looking at the clock in the corner I saw the time was 1pm in the afternoon, I had fallen asleep sometime around 3:30, good, and I'd most likely be up all night in Dallas anyways. Underneath the clock was a sheet of paper that I saw had my name on it, picking it up I snorted, of course his handwriting would be amazing…

_Sanna,_

_After such a lovely night I find your clothes are no longer adequate, and while I would love nothing more than to have you naked always-_

I rolled my eyes at that, typical Eric

_-I find that I would not prefer sharing such a sight with others. My day man Bobby should be by with appropriate wear for tonight and with a packed suitcase for Dallas as you cannot get back to your apartment with the unfortunate 'theft' of your car. Be ready to leave at sundown Lover._

_-E_

_(the code is 7284)_

I took a deep breath, inhale and exhale. It was so like him to just solve all of my problems without saying anything. For a second I wondered when he had time to arrange everything but he would have had a few hours after I passed out to work on things… I'm fairly sure my pride was slightly wounded at that… damn irrational hormones.

Looking around I grabbed a large t-shirt before making my way upstairs, the door locking behind me as the electronic lock clicked into place, I hadn't even noticed that last night. Searching out the kitchen I doubted he had food, but I was hungry so it didn't hurt to check.

As I thought, the kitchen was pristine and empty, looking every inch like a never before used kitchen you'd see on a magazine cover or something. Getting a glass of water to stave off the hunger pains I went about checking my phone with a lack of anything else to do.

There were a few texts from Ben about the café and I responded to those first. God, with the amount of time I was away from it now it was more like he was the owner, if this crazy schedule kept up, and I'm pretty sure it would, I probably should look into making him a business partner, not just my manager.

Next were texts from Sookie about Dallas, she told me about the nest and who was who, how one of the nests humans was showing her around today and she was pretty sure the Fellowship of the Sun had Godric… Of course they did.

The Fellowship had sprung up in the wake of the vampire revelation, a bunch of zealots convinced vampires were inhuman and sent from Satan or some shit, mostly I think they just wanted to blame vampires for their problems, which, in all fairness, could be the case for some of them.

I had spent a lot of time around vampires after becoming Eric's human, and would be the first to say that they were not a nice bunch of people. That was not to say they were horrible either, but theirs was a different culture and lifestyle tailored towards them being hunters and creatures of power, and should they choose to, they could make life very difficult for people very easily, or end it.

They did away with pretenses of niceness and social graces, it was power they respected and answered too.  Basically, they were us, but without the veneer of 'humane' behavior, they didn't need it, there were not so many vampires that they had to live in close quarters on a day to day basis like humans, they were powerful but few and therefore had no need for politeness for the sake of co-existence, only for the sake of not pissing off the bigger fish on the food chain.

The front door opening quickly got my attention and I grabbed for a kitchen knife before figuring out it was Eric's day man, Bobby. His thoughts were awash with annoyance and embarrassment, apparently shopping for woman's clothes had been quite mortifying for him, and yet he was scared to not do a good job based on his 'masters' commands. He also wanted to know what new sort of hussy was taking up his time now and how long I would be around, it was both pitiful and hilarious in a weird way.

"In here Bobby." I called out, scaring the crap out of him, coming into the kitchen I was unimpressed with the snotty little man who kept dabbing at his face with a cloth and was toting a few shopping bags along with a carry on suitcase.

"Ah yes, so you're the one." His tone was full of contempt even as he checked me out blatantly, the creep.

"Seems so," I paused as he put a takeout bag on the counter, the smell was heavenly I was so hungry, along with a bag from a convenience store; apparently his instructions had included iron supplements.

"I have brought what Master Eric wished for you, is there anything else you require or may I leave? Some of us have better things to do." He eyed me again, imagining doing me in the kitchen like the whore he seemed convinced I was, what a fucking tool.

"Fuck off Bobby." I flipped him the bird with a sardonic smile, offending him greatly as the 'blond hussy didn't know her place'. But I was his 'masters' hussy so he simply sneered and left, dropping everything else unceremoniously on the floor.

Looking back at my phone I typed out a quite response to Sookie before abandoning my phone in favor of food.

It was just a burger and fries, but right then they were ambrosia as I quickly scarfed them down, living with and being on a vampires schedule tended to make one slim down as remembering to eat actual food sometimes didn't happen. 

It's usually why your typical fangbanger was all skin and bones, they either didn't remember or their usual vamps didn't like the smell of food around them.

I downed an iron pill and quickly took stock of the clothing options available to me, suddenly it made much more sense why he was _that_ embarrassed about shopping for me. The clothing was a mixture of pretty sundresses and club wear. Almost like Eric couldn't make up his mind what he wanted to see me in so he just got both.

I wanted to bang my head on the table or something, not much of this was stuff I particularly would have chosen for myself. The lingerie however was amazing; despite the weirdness of Bobby picking it out, it was beautiful. Sexy underwear was both hard to find in my size and expensive, but when I found some it was like I was Queen of the Amazons for the day while I wore it, sexy underwear was a confidence boost I would never say no too.

Finding the shower I quickly went about my business, not even lamenting the lack of makeup this time because honestly, I looked fine without it right now. I had chosen the comfiest looking dress from the bags, dark green cotton number with a sweetheart neckline and short sleeves, it paired well with a cream colored cardigan I found. Underneath I matched it with a black satin set that while sexy, was more covering than some others, plane rides called for comfortable traveling clothes after all. I looked every inch a southern belle, and if I had worn this yesterday I would have said I looked just like Sookie, now thought, I was very much me, even if I would have preferred jeans and a t-shirt.

It was then I heard a voice calling from downstairs, I looked at my phone clock, it was only 4, sunset wouldn't be until 6:30-7ish today. Heading downstairs, and opening the door to his day room I found Eric lounging in bed, still naked and with a sexy grin, but underneath I could see confusion in his eyes.

"I would say good night, buuuut it's still sunny out…" I raised my eyebrows at him as he frowned

"I know, I've never woken up this early," he looked up and really looked at me, taking in all the changed just as I had earlier this afternoon.

"Just what are you Sanna?" he got up and stalked towards me inhaling deeply and seemingly finding what he was looking for.

"I see." He looked at me again like he hadn't seem me before, like something had just shifted and suddenly I was a whole new Sanna.

"What!?" I asked impatiently frowning at him,

"I think I may know… but the answer is something we would have thought impossible, I must confer with Godric when we find him to confirm this." The last part was muttered to himself more than me, I really wanted to know but I knew he wouldn't tell me his suspicions unless he was certain, it was a waiting game now.

"Fine, Sookie texted me that he's probably been taken by the Fellowship, if we haven't heard about a dead vampire he's still probably alive." His hands balled into fists at the news

"Good. Now that we know getting him should be easy." There was a dark look in his eyes that promised pain to those who stood in his way on this.

"Who is he to you?" I took one of his hands into mine, unconsciously trying to sooth his ire, as his eyes turned to me, assessing in a way I hadn't seen since before we agreed to work together. He took a deep and unnecessary breath.

"He is my maker." My eyes widened, that was a big deal.

"Holy shit. I'm so sorry Eric"

"It is fine, he is alive, and we will retrieve him." His words sounded sure, but underneath I could tell he was worried, blood exchanged seemed to work both ways after sharing more than a drop or two.

"Our Flights at 8, are you packed?"

"Indeed I am Lover, which means we have some extra time…" his eyes trailed over my outfit approvingly, apparently he had a thing for me in sundresses, who knew?

”What set are you wearing?"

I smirked stepping back, "oh no, I just took a shower, and we have to leave in a bit, there's no time for that." Plus I had the feeling my cloths wouldn't survive and I was starting to like this outfit.

"I'll be quick" his voice was pure sin as I dashed out the door up the stairs, him following up until where there would definitely be sunlight before stopping "come back Lover, we have time"

"Nope!" I glanced at the clock, it was an hour and a half until he could leave the basement, and currently I was in the safe zone.

"You can't hide from me forever  _Sanna_ " he practically purred, letting his accent through transforming my name into something way sexier than it should be.

"Sex won't take your mind off Godric, and I happen to like this outfit." I crossed my arms, inadvertently pushing my chest up which distracted him for a minute, his eyes riveted on the available cleavage.

"Fine, but I'll have you again, soon." He promised before melting back into the basement and I retreated to the living room to get my phone where a confirmation for Anubis Airlines was waiting for me, the flight was still scheduled to leave on time.

Placing it down a got the rest of my things ready and before I knew it, it was time to go, punctuated by Eric blurring behand me and grabbing my ass,

"I didn't say it before, but I do love you in a dress, you look delicious Lover" He leaned down to nuzzle the spot where he had bitten me the night before. No marks were left, but it brought back the memories and a shivered from the sensations he was making.

"Easy there hotshot, it's time to go or we'll miss the flight."

"Hm yes, normally I'd fly myself, but I doubt you'd be able to make the entire journey with me in the air." He sounded a bit wistful at that, but I agreed internally, there was no way I'd make a full flight to Dallas in the air with him, not just from the elements but from sheer terror, I didn't like heights.

Leaving he peeling out of his driveway and sped towards the airport, in a few hours we'd be in Dallas looking for Godric, anticipation welled up in my stomach along with worry. Somehow it felt like I was missing something, the entire story didn't really match up, but until I figured out what it was, I'd be on my guard.

…

Dallas here we come.

 

* * *

 

The flight to Dallas was awkward and uncomfortable for both of us. Myself because of the whispers and thoughts and stares I received from traveling with Eric, some of derision, some of envy, others a mixture; and Eric because of his sheer size. He could apparently deal with the masses well enough, but fitting the gigantic frame of an ancient Viking warrior on a plane and into the slightly larger first class seats was worse than playing Tetris with only the Z blocks. He was crammed into the seat and it was all I could do not to laugh at how uncomfortable it was for him and how he looked hunched over with his knees drawn up.

The stares were worse on the plane, with the close quarters magnifying the thoughts of those around us, most of the women hated me in a mixture of jealousy and contempt, convinced I must just be a high end fangbanger, the men mostly just wanted to show me either my 'place' or 'what a real man was like', except for one guy who turned out to be gay and was more worried about visiting his grandmother in Dallas rather than myself, I liked him.

But for the most part we were left alone, and when we landed were the first one out of the plane,

"I'm never sitting in one of those tin cans again." Eric made his opinion on commercial traveling very clear.

"Fine, fine, where's our ride?" I looked around trying to see an indication that someone was there to pick us up.

"Over there," he pointed to a Hispanic woman and a non-descript man in a suit waiting near the entrance.

"Eric." The women nodded in greeting as we approached with the man smiling at me, he was her human apparently.

"Isabel, it's been a while." He nodded back as she jerked her head to the man,

"This is Hugo, my human."

"Nice to meet you." He said it more at me than Eric, but he seemed alright so far. Getting to the car Eric and Isabel started conversing in Spanish in the front seat, which was rude but it must have been sensitive information or something, I was fairly certain Eric would tell me is I needed to know something… fairly…

"So your Eric's human?" Hugo seemed to want to be best buds; a quick flicker through his mind had me seeing his similar interactions with Sookie yesterday.

"Yes." I'm not sure what it was, but something put me off about him, unlike my sister I was disinclined to like people right away, and there was something that made me feel like he wasn't a friend. My gut had lead me out of many situations, so I was disinclined to not listen to it.

"That's great, I love meeting others in the lifestyle." He commented mildly, his smile just not quite reaching his eyes as the two up front continued to converse his thoughts a bit random and hectic… possibly suspicious, but I’d met too many like that to really take note other than a gut feeling though.

"Yeah, totally cool." I pretended to be checking my phone as a typical person in their 20s would, ignoring him for the most part.

Pulling up to a nice house Sookie and Bill were waiting outside for us, hand in hand like the sweet couple they were. I always wondered at how it was that despite being older, it always felt as if she was younger, despite the obvious due to my weird death defying experience. Eric helped me out of the car, much to the apparent surprise of those around us, and as he guided me in the entirety of the nest turned to stare.

"You have quite the reputation." I commented mildly eyeing those around us, he only grimaced in return as we headed towards an office. Isabel and Hugo following with Sookie and Bill, shutting the door it was obvious this office was soundproof, otherwise we wouldn't be here.

"So what exactly is the situation?" Eric started, going to sit behind the desk as I flanked him much to the apparent consternation on Isabel and Sookie apparently.

"Hugo and Sookie discovered that it's mostly likely that the Fellowship have Godric." Isabel began

"Yes we already knew that." Eric drawled "I'm talking about plans now." Isabel eyed him; apparently someone wasn't used to being bossed around.

"I could go in!" Sookie blurted out, I raised my eyebrows _what?_ "I could find out where their keeping him." _I can do it Su!_

"That's something." Eric actually sounded like he was considering it.

"I could go with her!" Hugo offered, I grimaced his mind buzzing with too many ideas and thoughts to make much sense.

"What if we just went in guns blazing tomorrow? Churches aren't privately owned, you all can go in," I suggested wanting to avoid leaving Sookie on her own with Mr. Fuzzbrains.

"You can just come with us?" Hugo suggested, and I'm not sure how much this guy knew, but sending two telepaths in at a time seemed like a very bad decision to me.

"That's true, if you all infiltrate with us as backup it might work out better."

I looked hard at Eric. I was his human, and despite there being no warm and fuzzies in particular between us most of the time, I thought he would have had more of a concern for me in this plan that he seemed to.

"I don't think that's such a good idea." My tone became much more stilted as my temper flared.

"Well it's the best we have." Eric tossed back, and now I was both hurt and pissed off, there was no way this ended pretty not with all the eggs in one basket.

"The both of us? Really?" I asked quietly, aware that both Bill and Isabel could hear but needing the answer.

"If it's our best chance we will go for it." Eric had melted into the Vampire I knew he could be but never had been with me. It wasn't _my_ Eric talking right now, it was a vampire whose Maker had gone missing, and he didn't care about much else at the moment, and wow, I didn’t think it would sting as much as it did.

"Very well." I acquiesced knowing I would never win this argument, but I could find independence in the light of day where I would damn well think of something better… I hoped.

"Excellent, Isabel finished, "I have been worried for Godric, come, let us meet the others." She led the way out of the office like the authority figure she was.

"Everyone this is Eric Northman, and his human Susana Stackhouse." I wondered about how she actually got my full name "Please treat them ad important guests." It seemed Isabel called the shots with Godric not being here, other than the other vampire coming up to us, dressed in jeans and a collared shirt, he was so nerdy looking it was hilarious.

"The names Stan" He introduced himself, casting a cursory eye over me but mainly focusing on Eric.

"It's been a long time Stan" Eric greeted, subtly steering me towards the other edge of his body away from Stan.

"Nice to meet you" I offered simply to a responding fangy grin, designed to intimidate more than welcome.

"Likewise" He noted before flickering off to go deal with the rest of the nest, he was rather unsettling. Eric turned towards me,

"You are upset?"

"Way to notice genius." I snarked back, pissed at him and unwilling to be as reasonable as I had been before when I was angry despite knowing this may not be the time.

"What is it?" god he was frustrating sometimes.

"I don't want to be bait with my sister, this whole things screams failure from the start." I stated bluntly

"But this will get us closer to Godric, don't you want to help?" he was actually confused.

"I want to help yes," I started "but I don't want to be your pawn, don't use me like I'm expendable." I demanded, looking at him accusingly, despite my sister also being a telepath it wasn't like we were a common thing to happen upon, and to be frank, he was lucky I went to him and not an older or more powerful vampire, I'm sure I could have found one.

It was the spark of good I saw in him that ultimately convinced me he was the one to tie myself too, and after getting to know him, Eric was actually a mostly good guy to his close ones, which I had become a part of I liked to think on some level.

"You're anything but." He promised, but it didn't reassure me at all, not with something like a Maker on the line.

"Right." I muttered, turning away and drifting over to where Sookie and Bill were,

"Are you all set for tomorrow?" She asked, "Hugo told me to dress for church, do you own anything that could work? Or do you need to borrow some of my stuff?" she asked kindly, I smiled slightly,

"A mysterious benefactor decided I looked good in dresses and now I have more than I ever wanted." Humor was always the best option when you felt like shit.

"Well I never thought I'd see the day." She teased lightly, picking up on my mood despite my blocking her out to the best of my abilities, she wasn't the only one. Bill seemed to have been listening to our conversation as his face was pinched in annoyance, and Eric was skulking along the outskirts of the room, talking with the present vampires but eyeing me warily.

Soon enough it was early morning and the four of us from Louisiana all got into a rental car to head towards the hotel Carmilla that was located close to the nest. Checking Eric and I in was a terse affair. Sookie and Bill left for their room sensing the discontent and when we got to our hotel room (because, of course, Eric only booked one) I went about putting my things away, my mind running through various scenarios where the whole plan went to shit.

"Are you truly this upset over tomorrow?" Eric came up behind me, hands on my hips nuzzling at my neck.

"I think the whole thing with be a shitstorm waiting to happen, and you just threw me into the mix without even asking." I explained, not willing to turn and face him yet.

"I… cannot apologize, I need to save Godric." He confessed holding me tighter hands creeping around my body, feeling me up as he buried his head further into my neck; it seemed to be one of his most favored spots.

"I know…" I said softly, ignoring his wandering hands in favor of my inner turmoil, "we'll find him Eric" I promised leaning back into his hold.

“I just don’t know if we will this way, not without problems.”

"I believe you will." Eric flashed a fang filled smile over my shoulder, his hands becoming bolder as his mind turned to other pursuits "but for now, there is no place for you to hide Sanna." And before a knew it I was being dragged onto the bed in the lavish room, Eric swiftly making work of our clothing as we nearly attacked each other in eagerness, desperate to forget the heavy emotions if only for a while.

Tomorrow we'd bring Godric back.

 

* * *

 

 

Despite what I had wanted, I only got about 4 hours of sleep that night before Sookie was knocking on our door wanting me for the day, which was ridiculous because it was only 8am. Warily I opened the door after 10 minutes of knocking,

"What?" I just wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep until the afternoon, alas she wasn't having it.

"It's time to get up silly!" she was way to rested for 8am, unfortunately for her I had 4 hours of sleep and no coffee.

"I was too well fucked last night to consider this time to get up." I told her point blank to which she blushed as some images ran through my head at the fun we had had. Her reciprocal images were rather depressing in comparison "I know you like southern gentlemen but I didn't think he'd take that literally." My mouth ran away from me as I mentally compared the images and found Bill lacking.

Unfortunately this was the wrong thing to say, and she huffed and I _knew_ she wanted to slap me or something of a similar nature. But before I could attempt at an apology she was responding.

"I don't go judging you Susana Stackhouse, how dare you?" she was flushed in anger and clenching her fists, obviously not willing to put up with me today "I was goin' to invite you to find real Texan barbeque an' shop but I think I'll just go myself." And with that she whirled away… obviously a touchy subject…

"I'll meet you later!" I shouted down the hall after her.

"Don't bother!" dang, she also knew how much I didn't want to infiltrate the FOTS.

Walking back in the room, to awake now to go back to sleep I ordered room service before setting about to find the best outfit for the day, keeping on mind where I would be going but what I expected to happen. Despite Sookies dismissal of my involvement, I knew that Eric was right, two was better than one, and I didn't trust Hugo for some reason… it was like his thoughts felt too scripted or something, I hadn't felt that feeling really before, so it put me on edge, obviously I was the only one who felt that way.

Dressing in a nice blue dress with skin tight leather shorts underneath and cute but functional boots I felt ready for whatever the world threw at me today. After of course, my food which arrived looking delicious, pros of having a vampire, they will pay for food service and not bat an eye at what you get… or at least one like Eric, who grew more and more in my estimation daily.

Before I left, in a fit of paranoia I lifted the steak knife from the utensils and stowed it under my dress with some creative thinking. I just couldn't shake the feeling that today would call for violence.

I spent the rest of the day wandering around in the sun, picking up things here and there, and actually replacing the steak knife with an actual one that could be comfortably strapped to my thigh. That was the nice thing about the South; no one really gave a fuck if you were purchasing weapons.

Eventually it was time for Sookie, Hugo and I too meet up, but I hung back, stationing myself in the parking lot, watching Sookie's disgruntled expression as I 'failed' to show after she had said not too and Hugo’s equally disgruntled expression, which was perplexing, but unfortunately I was too far away to pick up on anything but facial expressions.

I watched as they talked to a pretty blond woman who invited them in, and as they entered the church, which was when the sense of foreboding really hit me. I quietly walked up to the church, hoping I'd come within range of Sookie so she knew I was there, but I couldn't feel anything, which was frightening because I should be able to ready here if I was directly outside of the modestly sized church. Faintly however, after a few minutes of focusing I sensed her undergrounds along with the vague sense of nothingness in a different corner of the basement, only but only barely.

I quickly worked my way inside from a little side entrance and if anyone did see me, they didn't question anything as I looked like a good southern girl who would be here, sundress and all. I milled about the growing crowed, reading them before edging closer to the basement stairs, the hour was growing late and Eric would be along the perimeter soon. I was able to make my way downstairs unnoticed after waiting forever, creeping along the hallway unwilling to risk speed for capture.

Ahead I heard Sookies voice all but yelling which told me to hurry up, along with Hugo’s… the FUCKING traitor; apparently he had sold us out and gotten Sookie captured along with Godric, the bastard. However, it was the third mind voice that made me speed up, the imaginings of Sookie going through it were enough to have me drawing my knife and kick bursting into the room where the man (Gabe as I later found out) was pushing her down, he was mentally broadcasting one desire at the moment, and it was enough to make me see red.

Quickly and without hesitation, unlike with dear old Uncle Bartlett all those years ago, I lunged forward and before he was able to rip her shirt open I had the knife buried in his back, I was aiming for the general area of the heart, but apparently I missed and he was able to jerk his elbow back sharply into my stomach. I gasped in pain, he actually had a lot of power behind that jab, but managed to hold onto the knife and pull it down, hitting a major artery. He dropped like a pile of bricks, bleeding out onto the floor.

Sookie started to sob in earnest and Hugo lay in a corner, beaten to shit but still too comfortable for my tastes, I discreetly stepped on his hand, breaking it as I went over to Sookie to help her up… she lunged, sobbing into my arms.

"Oh Su I'm so sorry I'm a horrible sister _thank you_!" she rushed out clinging to me as the warm blood on my hand grew sticky as it cooled. It was then a white blur flashed into the room before I had a chance to respond.

He was a vampire, that much was obvious, turned in his late teens I'd say with a few visible tattoos and short cropped brown hair. The apparent age could put you off for a moment, but when his eyes met mine after they were done surveying the room and observing Gabe's body I nearly gasped. The sheer _age_ his eyes conveyed was enough to make you pause, this _had_ to be Godric.

"Godric?" I asked warily, just to confirm as his eyes stayed on me, his nostrils flaring

"Yes?" he answered, his voice carrying the hint of an accent to a language long since gone, his eyes narrowing in on the bloody knife I clutched in my hand still.

"You sure don't seem to be trapped." I observed, falling back on dry humor to deal with the situation, inappropriate but effective. His lips twitched a bit as he inclined his head towards me

"Indeed not." He agreed as Sookie still clung to me and all of a sudden I faintly felt the nearness of Eric, it was almost uncanny how we both tilted our heads at the same time to look in his direction.

"You have had his blood?" he quietly asked, voice betraying no thoughts as I nodded my head, to busy waiting to see what he'd do.

"I'm here my child" he said calling to Eric, and sure enough a second later Eric blurred into existence in the room.

"Godric." He whispered in reverence as Godric nodded his head in acknowledgment before turning his eyes back to us

"You sent them after me." It was phrased as a statement, but the underlying demand to know had Eric spilling.

"Yes, to find you before they could kill you Godric." He explained as I stood there watching them, my stomach still hurting from Gabe and Sookie starting to let go and straighten herself up.

"Well, it's still not a done deal, let's get outta here." Sookie came right out with it as I nodded my agreement angling for the doorway before more fellowship crazies walked through.

"Yes, let us depart" Godric followed at a sedate pace, his voice conveying a sort of resignation that was out of place with the situation as we saw it.

Quickly we made it all the way to the main floor before being confronted with an entire crowd of zealots, _oh fuck, the lock in!_ Sookie broadcasted to me as I mentally punched myself, the two vampires would make it out ok, but we were fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please feed my poor little soul with a comment or two. It really makes me want to update faster, even if this is still not really new material... yet.


	12. A Near End to a Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the delay, the HP plot bunnies came out and bit me and i had to chase them all down before I returned!  
> BUT  
> Here it is! Thank you for all you're kinda messages, they really make me keep up with it, and we are a chapter or two away from ... dun Dun DUN
> 
> NEW PLOT.
> 
> Tis' the season for days off work, so I am hoping to get at least one NEW chapter out before the end of the year... hopefully.
> 
> ENJOY~

The church was filled to the brim of scared people with weapons…  _awesome_. In the heat of the moment things like the 'lock in' had slipped most of our minds… or at least mine, and I hadn't been reading Sookies that well due to the pain in my stomach… it was slowly abating, but it was enough to completely throw me off my game, fucking hell.

"Ah, so you have joined us!" Steve Newlin had a smarmy grin on his face as he acted like he was the orchestrator of this whole thing (well, he was sort of… but i doubt his plans included this), douchebag. His sycophants surrounded Sookie, Hugo and I with their stakes and silver chains making escape _without_ pain impossible. Eric and Godric stayed with us, even though they could have gotten out in mere seconds, despite what the churchgoers thought. Sookie was hurt, I was hurt, we didn't really care about Hugo but if we left him here he wouldn’t be able to face the vampires for what he did.

"Is being a racist homicidal asshole a natural state of being for you?  Or are we just special?" the words left my mouth before I could really help it, the pain and stress of the situation making me less than diplomatic. His expression stayed, but suddenly became strained as if he wanted to sneer but couldn't in front of his followers.  Eric on the other hand, had no such compunctions and let out a startled laugh before a growl from Godric made him suddenly stop.

"You're surrounded" Steve gloated, his smile turning manic as the herd of zealots moved in, it was then that I felt a faint twinging of the bond between Eric and I, and if I hadn't been in so much pain, I would have realized that it was determination.

"Take me." Eric declared without so much as a 'by your leave' "but let them go." 

Sure, the asshole choses _now_ to go all white knight.

Both Sookie and I stared at him incredulously, Sookie unable to comprehend that he would do something so selfless and myself… well I was both upset that he would do this to me and impressed at this new facet of his character, although still less than impressed with the timing.

"Very well" Little did Steve know both my sister and I could tell he was lying to the extreme. But there was nothing we could do at the moment, my knife wouldn't do much against the volume of people and the vampires were (thankfully) against sacrificing us.

Eric was led to a table in the middle of the alter and restrained with silver, but fortunately, Steve Newlin was the type to monologue during his victory like the stereotypical villan he was turning out to be. This actually was the most relieving thing I had had happen all day, now I was assured of Eric’s survival for at least another 5 minutes give or take.

And indeed, while he was going on and on about Eric being sacrificed at dawn, a huge bunch of ‘voids’ converged on the church with Bill and Stan kicking open the doors and marching in, which of course didn't help anything, all it did was agitate the church followers further and I found a sharp knife to my throat and was restrained by two more beefy guys.

"Let them go!" Bill demanded as Stan moved against the rest of the people threateningly.

I am ambivalent about vampires as a whole most of the time, but it was fairly underwhelming to be yelled at by Bill, who looked and sounded like any other old hick off the street.  He should have coordinator better with Stan who at least had the ‘I will kill you and laugh’ vibe going on.

Sookie gave an incredulous look in my direction at that thought.

"I don't think so!" Steve retorted as he raised a stake above Eric… and I will admit my heart stopped for a second. Despite Eric and I's complicated relationship and mutual abhorrence of feelings and ugh… _talking_ … I really didn't want him dead-dead; I cared about him… unfortunately….

It was then that suddenly a shot was fired and appeared on Steve's head… not a real gunshot unfortunately… or maybe fortunately depending. Anyways, a paintball burst on his head and Sookie and I exploded at the same time…

"JASON!" as our stupid ass brother came armed with a paintball gun and a bunch of self-righteousness… honestly I just wanted to hit my head on something hard while Sookie just wanted to disappear in the wake of his interference

Talking about unimpressive firepower, I give you Jason Stackhouse.  Still, I actually was happier to see my brother than i had been in a long, long time.

"Take that asshole!" he shouted as everyone turned to look at him, which of course provided a great opportunity for Godric who flashed up in to the upper pews, commanding the attention of everyone gathered like Steve Newlin wished he could.

"Peace." He stated, in that voiced that suggested that he _had_ seem countless centuries more than us that utterly conflicted with the image of… linen wearing teenager… not that I could particularly complain being one of the younger ones in attendance…

"Or what?!" Newlin demanded with his stake poised over Eric who was still trapped against the table.

"Or we will kill y'all!" Stan shouted tightening his hold on the person he was holding into a more life threatening position. Steve was hesitating, I took advantage,

"I don't think he really cares Stan!" I called out, the consciences being a fist to the stomach from the guy at my left… FUCK! I doubled over hacking up a glob of blood while everyone focused on Godric saying something… I was to disoriented to really pay attention as he was also going on about peace or some shit while I tried not to cry about how much my abdomen hurt.

The next thing I knew besides a sharp pain from being righted so quickly was Sookie tugging at me to go, Eric was free and everyone was miraculously alive. Eric held onto my arm as he escorted me out.

“The fuck just happened?” I asked dazedly

"Are you alright Sanna?" He quietly asked as Godric was laying into Stan and the Church behind us was dissolving into chaos as Newlin tried to contain his masses, one could only hope there might still be a burning at dawn of a decidedly more _human_ target.  Unlikely, but a girl could dream.

"I'm tired and hurt and so _done_ with today." I sighed as I gladly slumped onto him, willing to put off my earlier feelings in favor of basking in this relief that everyone who mattered got out safely.

Making our way back to 'headquarters' or Godrics nest was quick, yet felt like a lifetime while I clutched at my middle, the pain a consistent throb, but I had had vampire blood within the past week, it should be healed soon, at least I figured so…

Actually getting back though put the pain temporarily out of my mind, there were so many vampires and Humans that were unknowns to me, and for the first time I wished I was Sookie who was at least slightly acclimated to nests, while I had never been in a place like this.

Eric was taking me through the introductions and while a few resonated, the throbbing in my abdomen was distracting me, although less painful than it was before, imagine someone consistently poking a painful bruise without pause, and that is how it feels. I think Eric could tell I was in pain; he was much gentler with me than normal, despite the fact than he was never particularly rough.

Godric was safe, it was why we were here, and it was why Eric was so stressed. Godric had talked with Sookie and Eric earlier, and I suspect I would get my time once he was done with business.  I wasn't a key player, really, and despite how it grated on me I was willing to wait to talk to him. But how I wanted to, I knew I didn't have the authority or the importance really, or even a large contribution to his freedom from the Fellowship, but I wanted to know, wanted to understand just _why_ he had been there, because if there was one thing I could acknowledge, it was that he wouldn't have been there if he hadn't wanted to be, and that alone was disturbing.

But as I was walking towards Godric and Sookie, he was dissolving a conflict between her and a female vampire, I sensed it…

It was faint at first, a brush against my mind. I almost didn't register it while I was focused on Godric and Sookie, but suddenly the antipathy hit me full force.

"I have a message from Steve Newlin!" a voice came from the feeling as I looked up, recognizing a guy from the crowd that had held myself and the others captive.

"Fuck" I seemed to managed before everything went to shit and I dove for cover behind a wall, another human following me and elbowing me directly where I had been hurt earlier. I screamed as their weight bore down on me, of course right on where it hurt. My stomach hurt even more now, and while usually I would mention it, it didn't seem important while most of the others in the nest were dying and critically wounded.

"Are you ok?"

"What?" I choked out, far more disoriented than I thought as people started moving around me, the pain significantly increased but insignificant in the face of what everyone else was facing.

"Are you OK?!" Godric demanded, pulling me into a seated position as I nodded, I wasn't in danger of dying at least. A part of me was screaming that no, I was _not_ ok, but all I really managed to do was stare blankly ahead as he left to go help the situation.

"Su?!" Both Sookie and Jason cried for me, as I sat there, in pain and slightly confused, my middle was throbbing, my ears were ringing, and things were fairly blurry at best.

"I don't like Dallas." I gasped as I _felt_ my insides trying to knit themselves together again with what remained of Eric's blood in my system, I wasn't outwardly hurt, but something had definitely torn or something with the repeated trauma to the same spot.

"You'll be alright." Jason was kneeling beside me as I struggled to focus on him, it was sad that this was as close as we had been in years. Sookie was at my other side wiping at…blood?

"You're hurt?" My voice sounded entirely too breathy making me sound far younger,

"Not me, Eric was." She grumbled, I wasn't sure I liked that tone directed at his wellbeing…

"Well…" the blurriness was going away and my ears were restoring themselves but the pain in my head and middle made higher thinking difficult at the moment "That's not good."

Both of my siblings seemed to take my continued consciousness as a good sign and Jason made to pick me up before a white blur marked Eric's appearance in front of us. I looked him over as well as I was able, his shirt was shredded, but ultimately he was fine.

"Sanna," he breathed, in relief? "You are hurt." His eyes roamed over me looking for damage,

"I'm a bit banged up." I agreed weakly as he leaned down and scooped me up instead of Jason who was about to make a scene before Sookie shushed him.

"I will take care of you when we get situated back at the hotel, the rest of the nest is moving there for the day." He was carrying me away from both Sookie and Jason, but I supposed that was ok as I saw Bill materialize next to them looking incensed.

"I'm glad you're ok." I whispered as he cradled me closer, making his way to a car that already had Godric in the back. He placed me next to him as he took the driver's seat and started to transport us away from the bloody scene, I lolled my head around and stared at Godric, he was frowning, looking back at the nest, and he seemed so _sad_.

"You know, it's not your fault." I quietly said as his head whipped around to stare at me, his expression tinged with disbelief

"That's nice of you to say." He murmured, his entire face broadcasting that he didn't think that at all.

"People will always fight what they don't know, even if this hadn't happened, they would have done something similar eventually." The pain had evened out for now, making coherence much easier as I tried to ‘sort of’ comfort a 2000 year old vampire… how was this my life again?

"It is in man's nature to fear the unnatural." He seemingly agreed, but that wasn't what I was saying at all

"Haa, you're funny," I drawled, resting my head back as he frowned at me "You're just as natural as anything else, humans just don't like not being the top of the food chain." I snorted a bit in humor at my own cynicism while he remained silent, Eric in the front shot what could be called a worried glance back at both of us as we settled into silence.

Before long we pulled up at the hotel, the staffs having already been alerted to our situation were fast at getting everything together for Godric who needed to now meet with the AVL spokeswoman, Nan Flanagan. Apparently they were already covering what just happened with emergency appearances by both her and the Newlins.

We settled into a conference room as others trickled in to wait for her, at this point it was maybe 2 or 3 in the morning and I just wanted all of the good drugs and sleep, but I was not going to get any of those for a while yet. Finally she strolled in and proceeded to bitch out Godric with a force of personality that I could respect and fucking hate at the same time.

It was surprising that Sookie and Jason leapt to his defense as he just sat there and took everything she dished out at him, much to the consternation of Eric who was sitting beside me near Godric, He was eager to defend his maker, yet Godric seemed to want none of it.

Honestly, while I did want to say something, I refrained and just watched him as he accepted and passed his position to Isabel. Something was off with him, he was… cutting off his ties, and not reforming any, and he was exuding a sense of  _tired_ and  _resignation_  

_…_ _oh no…_

When we were finally dismissed by Nan, my fears were proven correct as Godric went to the roof, Eric, Sookie and I following, myself at a much slower pace once I discovered my abdomen has swollen a considerable about in the time we had been sitting, I didn’t even want to see the bruise.

 _I never want to seem Eric like this again._  Was my thought as Godric said his goodbye to him, bloody tears trailed down his cheeks as he begged Godric to stay.

 _Father, Brother, Son_. I could understand enough of their conversation to hear those words, the bond they had was unfathomable to humans who live such short lives in comparison. That, at least, I knew.

"We're wrong, we don't belong here" was what he had to say to Sookie and I, after he sent Eric off, both of us staying with Godric while he could not. And after the pain, stress, and utter _bullshit_ I had put up with these past few days… I was not standing for him leaving without saying  _my_ piece and I made my way over to where he was standing while Sookie teared up at his words,

"Well I do have to thank you for one thing…" I sighed looking out at the city below us

"And what is that?" he inquired curiously.

"You've proven to me that no matter how old men get, they're still a bunch of idiots."

Godric started, as if taken aback by my words, I eyed him as my vision suddenly started blurring from angry tears and pain, and honestly I probably was a few minutes from fainting at this point.  But I was not about to let him martyr himself before I had my say.

"What, you expect me to beg? To plead? To think what you're doing is some sort of noble sacrifice?" I hissed at him as Sookie stayed in the background, unwilling to get in-between us at the moment as Godrics face darkened

"I care little for what you think about it." He was utterly to dismissive, good, I hit a nerve.

"Then why the production? Why the Fellowship? Why make Eric go through all of this just to throw it back in his face?!  Our faces?!”

I was incensed at this point and my rising blood pressure made the pain worse as I hacked up another glob of blood, not good.

"You're hurt?" He moved as if to help me while Sookie came closer, worried as well. I threw my arm out, halting him.

"You don't get to be worried since you seem to just want to end things here," I snarled, the blood making me realize that I shouldn't have put off medical attention as long as I had, high stress situations were not exactly conductive to thinking straight however and well, maybe this was a lesson in trusting vampire blood _too_ much.

"I would not see you hurt because of me." He was frowning, I laughed bitterly, as the pain started to consume me.

"I already was. And if you die here, it will be how I remember you, Eric will resent you, and everyone else will allow the faintest memory of you to fade… You said you're older than Jesus right?" I confirmed his earlier words from the church, at his faint nod I continued as the sun started to rise more and more.

"You've done horrible things, things you can't ever undo in this life, but you're _not_ Jesus!  You're not dying to fix anything, you're just afraid!" I accused swaying in place as I pointed an accusing finger at him

" _I dare you to live_ , live and repent, prove that you're sorry, not just a coward taking the easy way!"

I knew in the future I would look back at this entire situation and ask myself ' _What the fuck was I thinking?'_  but at the moment, the hysteria and heat of those few minutes had caught me, and I fucking challenged a 2000+ year old vampire to not be a coward.

I was mean, I was cruel, I had said things you should never say to someone that depressed about their existence. But at this moment, right now, I knew I'd say a thousand worse things to the man who had just _made Eric cry_ , maker status be damned.

I was crying, I was barely upright with clothing still covered in debris and my blood, and I was fairly certain the warmth trailing down from my chin was fresh blood adding to the mix. I was a mess and barely hanging on, a far cry from the person I had been not even ten minutes ago when I had first come up here.

"She's right Godric," I heard Sookie say quietly

"She's never been good with words, so she didn't say it very well… but as much as God forgives, you should live to forgive yourself first." I closed my eyes, grateful for her interference, ever the good cop to my bad, a fluent translator of my garbled insulting and desperate speech.

Unfortunately, closing my eyes was the worst thing I could have done, for the moment I did vertigo washed over me and I blacked out.

* * *

 

Coming to was a gradual process…

like a dream and I wasn't exactly sure if it was or not as my body and mind were at odds with each other.

 _"She cares deeply for you."_ A whisper of a voice floated around me

_"She knows I am the best choice for her continued survival, but she resents me for it, I am sure."_

That was… Eric? That's what he thought about me? While it had been true for a while… I was loathing myself, admitting I cared for him despite all of the reasons I shouldn't. He was like a fungus, he just grew on you until he wasn't just an asshole, the fucker became an endearing asshole, a true superpower to be sure.

Although, I guess I might not have informed him of that fact…

 _"All these years, and you still are a stubborn, blind fool."_  That voice… it was… I tried to remember why it was important…  _"You both care for the other, it is obvious, and otherwise why would she have tried to stop me at all?"_

 _"It seems as if you both saved the other."_  Right… that was Godric and Eric… talking about me… saving me?

" _Her injuries were caused by my foolishness, although she is quite stubborn to have lasted as long as she did without aid."_  

Right, pain and then nothing… what had happened to me?

" _Internal bleeding like she had would have been apparent to me if there had not been so much blood already around, why would she say nothing?"_

Ah, so that's why it had hurt, feeling like an idiot now that I hadn't said anything when looking back at it, yeah I really must have hit my head hard during the explosion or something, I thought this kind of idiocy was beneath me… apparently not. At this point my body slowly stopped feeling like lead as I struggled to open my eyes, convinced now that this wasn't a dream.

"Sanna," a cool hand rested on my forehead, "relax, we are here." Another hand, smaller, grabbed mine and held it, Godric then, and I suddenly was filled with a sense of relief as I felt my lips twitch with a smile and I squeezed his hand slightly.

"You feel things so strongly." Godrics statement gave me pause despite the awe in it, cracking my eyes open and seeming the two was making me happy, but it was like the sensation was echoing and rebounding between the three of us… what?

"What?" I managed to croak out, as Eric grabbed my other hand.

"I had to give you my blood, little one, or you would not have survived to take Erics." Godric explained with an unreadable expression on his face as shock overtook me.

"Thank you."

It was all I could say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I find that when faced with serious/deadly situations after the "OH FUCK" moment is gone, I too become a snarky little shit with a running thought commentary, much like Sanna here.


	13. Inferno

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, this is basically the last re-post ever. Next chapter will be all original content. the only thing majorly different is my cutting out Godric's POV in the last scene, as that is going to be totally re-written. Happy Holidays Folks!

Godric had never met a family quite like the Stackhouse's. Sure, he had met many people who, individually had represented all three family members, but never before had he seen such radically different people make up a trio of siblings all within 5 years of each other.

Jason Stackhouse he had met first, a nice (if incredibly dull) southern boy who if anything, had some sort of moral conviction that led to his decent treatment of Godric vs the other fellowship members. Yes, he was just a follower, looking for something that he hadn't quite found, and therefore was far more receptive to Godric than anyone would have liked, had they known.

Sookie Stackhouse had been a surprise however. He had heard her entrance and subsequent capture in the building. A nice girl, if maybe also a bit naïve in all things, and definitely in over her head, was his impression as he listened and waited for the dawn. It was only when he had heard Gabe taking action against her, forcing himself upon her, that he had left the cage they put him in to go help, after all, she didn't deserve that kind of treatment. Which is of course how he met the youngest one of the three…

Susana Stackhouse, 22 years old and the personal human of his progeny Eric. She had beat him to the scene, and instead of finding Gabe confronting the two women now that Hugo was down, he found her, fresh blood on her hands as Gabe bled out on the floor. She was utterly unlike her two siblings, strong, brash, and unapologetic, immediately Godric found himself reluctantly intrigued by this human Eric had so attached himself too, even if the fool didn't want to acknowledge it.

Originally he had meant to talk to her at his nest once the fervor of well-wishers and urgent business died down, he was eager to further understand the unique telepath and attractive woman Eric had tied himself  _through blood_  too. If there was one thing He was certain about, it was that Eric still understood the importance of their blood, and how he should not just give it out at random.  So, it was only a reasonable assumption to make that this ‘Sanna’ _was_ exceptional.

The explosion off railed so many of his plans. With so many dead or wounded due to his initial involvement with the Fellowship, well, he was not ashamed, just… exhausted, that he had had just pulled her from some wreckage before leaving the scene, letting his deputies figure out how to deal with the mess while he sat in a car driven by Eric and shared with his intriguing human.

She was brazen in her communication with him, perhaps from exposure to Eric, but nevertheless, he had not had a human or vampire be so boldly direct to him for a very, very long time. It was refreshing, and despite the heavy weight in his heart, he had found himself enjoying her presence, her delicious scent tempered with Eric’s made his senses relax as she rambled in the car, obviously not having healed from her ordeal and this was not the time to be feeding her more of their blood.

The following few hours were a whirlwind of activity as he slowly made sure his subordinates were taken care of while appeasing Nan. He had found it strange that Susana had declined to speak her piece like her siblings had, but looking over at her silently supporting Eric heartened him… made him feel like… at least Eric would have someone there for him once he was gone.

 _Eric_  it pained him in a way, to leave him after all this time, but there was nothing for it. Vampires were wrong, they didn't belong, and the guilt that had been slowly growing over the years as he realized the magnitude of some of his past actions was a burden he would not wish on anyone. The girl was good for him, he could tell they both cared for the other, despite Eric's reluctance to ever admit to any feeling and the outwardly prickly demeanor of his human.

The meeting had decided his death. He was not long for the world; he would meet the sun and repent for his sins as he accepted Gods punishment. This was what he must do to make everything right in the world once more, of this, he was certain.

Eric had of course, been adamant in his refusal to let him go, going so far as the offer to burn together, forcing him to use a makers command to see him live through this day. The two sisters had come up a minute or so after, Sookie promising to stay as he watched Susana clutch at her abdomen in pain, before stealing herself and glaring at him, anger emanating from her every pore.

The following conversation had been vicious as she hurdled insult and insinuation at him, not begging, but demanding  _he, a 2000_   _year old vampire_  live and repent for his wrongs, calling  _him_ a coward. Had he heard this at any other point in his life she would have died on the spot for her insolence, but he let her rail against him, all the while trying to ignore the niggling sensation in the back of his mind that thought what she was saying made complete sense.

It was after her heart started to race in anger that he noticed the stench of blood surrounding her, much stronger than normal for a human, her spitting out a glob of it just compounding his theory that she was in need of medical assistance.

Her refusal was not what he expected. She was petty and cruel, yet he was finding that beneath that, she was scared… for Eric? It only served to endear her more to him, her trying so hard to save his progeny the pain of his loss while so obviously injured, still a mess from the blast.

Her piece said, she had retreated a bit, letting her older sister be the perfect foil for her abrasive and harsh demeanor with her genteel southern lady charm that Susana did not seem to either have, or care to use. It was then that she had fainted dead away, bashing her head on the concrete of the roof before laying still, her skin pale and arms still clutched about her middle.

_No_

She would not die from his mistakes, his failures. He had sped over and taken her into the stairwell where the sun would not reach them, he called for Eric but her heartbeat at this point was so faint she could not afford that minute. Pushing up her shirt he had immediately known what was wrong as her older sister was sobbing in the background, begging him to save her.

Hypovolemic shock, internal bleeding that had gone untreated for far too long judging by the older stale smell of some of the blood in her abdominal cavity.

He had made a decision in that split second, he would see her live. With that he had torn at his wrist, forcing it into her mouth as his fangs buried into her stomach, draining the excess of blood that had accumulated.

The sensations of warmth and the heady taste of her blood threw him. Never before had he tasted blood this addicting, added to the feeling of  _her_  he was getting in his mind.

Light, Love, and Sunshine.

_oh...Oh_

Susana Stackhouse was a  _very_  special girl indeed.

 

 

* * *

 

 

2000 year old vampire Blood  _was a fucking trip_. It was like having the outward confidence of your appearance of Jessica Rabbit but the soul of an Energizer Bunny. I shit you not it was all I could do to stay in bed for the moment and to spaz the fuck out.

My body wasn't sure if it wanted to run around to room, shake uncontrollably, or jump Eric's bones. Weirdly enough I ended up doing a little of all three, scrambling out of bed to pace around the room once or twice before attaching myself to Eric's back like a limpet and sort of rocking side to side trying to get rid of the tremors coursing through me.

"How long has it been?" I asked, I had either been out an entire day or not long at all seeing as it was almost morning when shit went down… I could literally feel the amusement in the room as Eric huffed in exasperated amusement.

"Not even twenty minutes." He answered succinctly before peeling me off his back and pulling me onto the bed and onto his lap, stilling me for the most part as his hand stroked over me, PG places for the most part. Godric had this enigmatic little smile on his face as he watched us,

"I forgot how my blood affected others" Oh my God(ric?) I think he was making a joke "It has been a while." I just stared at him for a moment, stilling completely for the first time since waking up

"Why are we both not dead?" honestly there were a million ways I could have asked that question and only like 20,000 of them were worse, being blood drunk really was weird. Eric's grip tightened, practically assimilating me as his huge frame enveloped mine, and apparently I was his teddy bear now.

"I could not sentence you to die for my selfishness; you sustained repeated traumas to your abdomen and then hit your head when you fell, the injuries combined were… life threatening." Godric answered his entire aura exuding a tired sadness, but the little smile remained

"I have never exchanged blood with any other than my progeny; it is a very… interesting feeling."

"So I give you the warm and fuzzies and that means you're off suicide watch? Awesome, so we're both a little high right now right? 'cause you're smiling and I'm not sure if I want to give you all of the hugs or slap you silly…. Wait, both… I could do both!"

It was like an out of body experience sort of, on some level I knew I was completely out of it and  _should probably stop that like now_ … but the me still overdosed on vampire blood was more like  _CuddlesERICgodricWhAtThEfUcK_  but luckily my big blond and hunky bastard of a vampire prevented the aborted attempt to fling myself at his maker that no doubt would have ended up being a bad idea.

"Easy now lover, you may be healed but your body still needs rest, as do we." I really should re-evaluate my life choices; I obviously went wrong somewhere if  _Eric_  was the most reasonable person in the room at the moment, of course high me ‘don’t give a shit’ and has better ideas.

"Stop being so adorable" I demanded as squirmed around to face him, whipping my hands up to smush his cheeks

"it confuses me and I'm not sure whether to tear your clothes off or give you cookies, and you don't even EAT cookies!" I exclaimed as I dropped my hands and fell back onto the bed to look upside down at Godric, ignoring the delighted look on Eric's face at my casual declaration of affections.

"Easy now little one" Godric's lips were twitching, I counted that as hysterical laughter.

"'M not little!" My speech was getting a bit slurred, the momentary energy boost from Godric’s blood dissipating as the last 48 hours of pure stress caught up with me again.

"Shh Sanna, We must rest now," Eric murmured as I managed to focus on him again, just noticing how his bleeds had started, blood was trailing from his ears. I patted the bed and moved to make room for him. Godric made to leave but I reached out and caught his hand,

"Stay" I asked, needing both of them close for some reason. He merely blinked, a small frown marring his features before his face smoothed out and he inclined his head and got onto the bed that thankfully was big enough to accommodate all of us with me plastered against Eric. I kept a hold of his hand as he settled down with some space separating us. Behind me Eric nuzzled his head into the junction of my neck and shoulder and reached over me to cover our joined hands as I felt him become inanimate a moment later.

I sense of bone deep tiredness was overtaking me as I looked at Godric once more before I shut my eyes; his were fixed on the combination of all of our hands, an unreadable look on his face. I squeezed softly,

"We're here, so don't go anywhere ok?"

I didn't stay awake long enough to hear if he had responded.

 

* * *

 

 

I started awake next to the blaring sound of my phone going off in the other room and debated with myself heavily the pros and cons of getting up from what had basically become a Susana sandwich between two deadly and attractive vamps and going all the way over to get my phone… hnnn, choices.

Unfortunately it was decided for me when after the ringing stopped; it started up again almost immediately. Sighing I untangled myself from the guys and went over, just catching it before voicemail… shit, it was Sookie.

 **"** Lo'?"

_"Su! You're alright!?"_

"Yeah Sook," I rubbed at my face as I glanced at the clock,  **1pm** Fit as a fiddle and all that jazz."

" _Oh thank goodness."_ She let out a watery chuckle as I heard her shuffles around in the background  _"do you… you think you can come out to lunch with me? Maybe we can ever go find a real Texas steakhouse."_ I recognized the peace offering for what it was and agreed, besides, she sounded more torn up about something else other than my miraculous blood induced recovery… and I was fucking starving.

We met up in the lobby, I was in shorts and a soft blue t-shirt that really went well with my hair and eyes, Sookie was as usual, decked out in a nice sundress that made her look sweet and innocent. Her eyes though, her eyes were red rimmed and her face was puffy from crying.

We left quickly and made our way to a nice place that did indeed serve some really awesome steak which we gorged ourselves on, chatting about banal topics, saving the deep stuff for a moment when we weren't so ravenous. Finally we were done and sitting over pieces of cake before she started,

"You really must'a needed a lot, you look so different now." She was referring the how the blood had changed my appearance so drastically, it was true, I had needed a lot. Now I carried the unfortunate side effect, while vampire blood was addicting to many and generally consumed in small doses, having had it before, and then having so much fed to me in order to make up for the loss of so much of my own… I shudder to think just how much of my current self was an extension of Eric and Godric.

A few weeks ago Sookie and I could have almost been mistaken for twins, but now, now that a few weeks and a few pints of blood had happened, it was no longer so. Bills blood had made her hair lighter, skin better and given her a boost, but he wasn't that old. I on the other hand, was so radically different it was almost scary. My skin was taunt and smooth, my hair had lengthened and brightened to a whitish gold, my face and body had streamlined away any creases or unwanted buildups and I was left with a svelte figure and an angular striking face that had always been marred by baby fat and stress lines before.

I was still me, but I was the best version of me, the blood of two ancient beings bestowing an nth of their immense power into my being. I looked like a very, very pretty doll basically, and the thoughts I was getting from other patrons in the restaurant were not helping me keep my lunch down with just how graphic some of their broadcasts were.

"yeah… I did." Was all I said in response, nothing else needed to be, "but what's wrong with you? You've been crying." For all I ragged on her, I did love my sister… and I suppose I had affection for my brother buried down deep somewhere… deep deeeeep down.

"It's Bill…" she started off before I cut her off quickly,

"I have several people who would be more than happy to make him disappear for you. Just say the word Sookie." I knew this would happen. She looked at me sharply before looking miserable again,

"He… he's mad at me. For the church, for… for coming out here and all, and we had a fight." She confessed "I only was askin' why he wasn't at the church with us at first… and he just got mad!"

I reached over and grabbed her hand,

"You know I've never liked him, but you do, and couples fight, its natural… you just have to give it some time and make him suffer a bit before you resolve things, or you need to end it here and not look back." She gave me a small smile, "but you know what's great for making you feel better?"

"What?" I flashed out a card Eric had given me for expenses and such.

"Retail therapy in those cute stores we passed." Her grin widened to match mine.

Later after we had gone through too many shops and boutiques to name, made each other buy stuff that looked good, and managed to wrangle each other to get a few outfits that neither of us would normally consider it was evening, almost dark. We grabbed a quick meal in the hotel restaurant before hauling our bags upstairs to pack them up in our bags for the flights tomorrow. Leaving Sookie in better spirits I went to my room where I found a surprisingly awake Godric.

"I wake earlier due to my age." He answered my unspoken question while nodding in greeting as he was sitting at the desk on a laptop, his eyes flickered to my bags after a second with a raised brow.

"Retail therapy, it works, you should try it. I mean, you rock the linen look, but I bet we could do better." I wiggled my eyebrows back at him for good measure, a day out and about with Sookie putting me in a good mood for the night. His lips quirked as he shook his head almost fondly,

"You and Eric’s progeny would get along."

"You mean Pam? The most amazing boss bitch in the state of Louisiana? Hell yeah we do!" I grinned widely at him startling a small laugh from him, his lips actually forming a miniscule smile now.

"Of course," he agreed before looking at the clock, "It is dark now however; I must meet with Isabel to officially transfer my position to her." He rose and made to pass me at normal speed when I caught his arm and he halted obligingly.

"You'll come back though right? Promise?" I asked, not facing him, just asking for his confirmation.

"Ah… yes, I do believe I will be back sometime around 3, I … Promise." He agreed after a minute

"Alright then." I said softly and let go, hearing him leave a second later. The exchange didn't do anything however to dampen my mood, in fact, now I was scheming for a way to make it even better as I eyed the package from the lingerie store we visited.

Yes… Godric would be out till 3 and I knew of a large perpetually horny sex god in the next room who would be waking up soon… I grabbed the bag and rushed to change out of my current clothes and put on the sinfully sexy undergarments before heading to his prone form…

After all, a woman has needs too.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Having put on a little red set of barely there underthings I quickly sat astride Eric's prone form, waiting until a few minutes later I felt the subtle shifting underneath me.

"I know you're awake Eric" I informed him after his hands seemed to grow a mind of their own and creep up my waist towards my chest.

"I am" he agreed amiably as his hands explored, taking their time to map out curves he might have missed the last/first time we did anything.

"You're such a shit" I sighed, reaching up to peck him on the lips, "but so am I." And he groaned as I proceeded to grind on his dick, determined to have what I wanted from him, not that I thought he wouldn’t give it willingly.

"Fuck…  _Sanna_ " I increased my efforts and he opened his eyes to take in my state of attire entirely, the blood red color of the garments appealing to him on a primal nature I'm sure. His hands explored me, taking my breasts and other erotic areas hostage as I became a slave to his ministrations.

A mouth on my breast, a finger playing with my clit, I was lost in the sensations that I had previously though impossible for pleasure they were so divine, but he managed to make the experience exquisite for me as I explored him in turn, tracing his musculature with my mouth and finding places that drove him crazy in an effort to know him just as well.

Our second coupling was unhurried as we luxuriated in each other and took our pleasure before returning it to the other. I think emotionally we might have needed it far more than either of us would admit, not having had a chance to truly be together again since arriving in Dallas a few days ago.

When I first thought about being Eric's I had imagined it to be little more than a business transaction with maybe some sex thrown in occasionally. Now though, he had wormed his way underneath my skin (literally) and it changed everything.

Looking into his eyes as his was above me thrusting slowly, drawing out our mutual pleasure I felt our bond clearly for the first time, and I knew that this was different for him too, even if he wasn't willing to admit it to himself yet.

" _Eric!"_ I gasped out as I truly experienced why an orgasm was called 'the little death' my eyes rolling into the back of my head as I fisted the sheets, body arching into him as he started to thrust with purpose now, prolonging my climax and reaching his own. He bit down at my neck, not taking much before he lifted his head, snarling and spewing out words in a language I didn't understand his eyes opening to look at me, half lidded and smoldering.

"You are such trouble, my little lover" he lowered his forehead down to mine, forearms framing my head as he stayed buried in me.

"I could say the same" my expression morphing into coy as my arms trailed up over his shoulders to circle around his neck, fingers playing with his hair.

"Hnnn," he closed his eyes and moved to nuzzle where he had bitten a moment ago "but I must thank you for these past days, even if I almost lost you, I cannot bring myself to regret what has happened when it has reunited me with Godric once more." He didn't look at me as he spoke, but he did shift our position so we were both on our sides.

"I understand" I said softly, carding my hands through his hair "I don't regret it either, now we will just have to show him how happy we are he's here." He looked at me again, his eyes soft with emotion, a vulnerable look I had never seen and probably shouldn't get used to "He'll have you, me and Pam. We'll all show him how to live again, together."

He didn't say anything, but it was a moment I don't think I'd ever forget as we looked at each other in understanding about the man who made Eric and saved my life. Of course it lasted all of a few second before I felt him harden again inside me, his eyes shifting from soft to determine as he rolled us back to the original position we started the night in.

"But for now lover," he purred "it's just us."

 

Later found us up, showered, and dressed before Godric arrived back at the room, I was curled up on a chair, fending off sleep and texting Ben about café business as Eric worked on his laptop, both of us not feeling the need to go and politic with Nan and the other Dallas vampires. At 3am precisely Godric entered the room and sat down wearily on the other chair next to me.

"You're back!" I smiled at him, placing my phone down on the small table and turning towards him as Eric greeted him.

"Yes Susana, as promised" his lips twitched upwards at me again as he seemed to have a habit of doing when interacting with me.

"Call me Sanna like Eric does, or Su if you prefer." I waved away his use of my full name

"Did everything go as well as it could?" I asked as behind me Eric shifted his attentions away from his computer and onto us.

"Indeed, Isabelle will do a fine job..." he commented mildly seeming to lose focus and staring off, contemplating something.

"I have booked us tickets back home for today; the hotel has a delivery service we can make use of." Eric informed us, Godric merely inclined his head at the news, offering no protest.

"Have you eaten?" I wanted to know, his coloring pale for even a vampire, "I can get a donner or some Trueblood?" He looked at me, the little smile back in place

"I'm quite alright Sanna, I do not need much at my age… and it was necessary to have some of yours when I was healing you yesterday." That brought me up short, I had known I had been given his blood, but had not been aware he had taken mine as well. Now aware that he had I could feel it faintly, underneath the strength of Eric and I's bond was a faint trace of another, weak and likely to fade in time if not strengthened, but there.

"Oh…" I said numbly, still surprised at the revelation

"Eric is very lucky," Godric commented mildly "to have a human as… _unique_  as you Sanna." I nodded at that as he seemed to be waiting for some reaction, his eyes narrowed before his faced smoothed out again as Eric's hand came to rest on my shoulder.

"Indeed I am" he agreed as I smiled, complements always were appreciated.

"So we're all set for today?" I dropped my head back to look at Eric behind me "no last minute rescues or adventures?" he smirked at me,

"None that I'm aware of, we will leave the hotel at 3:30, so be ready for then, our flight leaves at 4:30."

"Great! I can get to The Den for the night shift then!" I was enthused at this, the amount of time I had been away was far too long in the fickle food industry, I brought my head up to look at Godric again.

"You can come with me if you don't want to go to Eric's club, I think you'd like it."

"The Den?" He inquired

"My cafe." I answered

"You own a business?" normally I would be offended at the perceived insult, but his tone wasn't surprised, it was more of a polite inquiry.

"Yeah, I started it last year, it's near some colleges and businesses so it's doing pretty well, but I've taken off a lot of time recently, so I really should be getting back to it." I chattered excitedly, I was truly proud of my café, it was exactly what I had wanted it to be when I created the business plan and took out the loans for it.

"I look forward to visiting it then." He said warmly as I smiled brightly at him before turning to look at Eric.

"You should visit too, the more vampires I have there the better night business gets." I demanded before throwing a pout on my face "besides, it's not fair I always have to go to your club but you never come to my place!" Eric just looked at me blankly, completely managing to portray ' _I am a 1000 year old badass vampire, I do not visit cafes'_  in a single look

"We shall see." Was all I got from him, sighing I turned back to Godric.

"Has he always been this difficult?" I complained good naturedly while rolling my eyes.

"Yes," Godrics little lip twitch turned into a full blown grin "Always."

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Waking up in a coffin on an airplane bough for Shreveport was decidedly not Eric's favorite way to wake up. In fact he would go almost as far as to say it was one of his most hated, the cramped space along with the added turbulence made for a highly unenjoyable ride.

Unlike the previous night, he thought wirily,  _that_ ride had been possibly the best way to wake up, a warm dolled up kitten waiting to play. Sanna had softened to him these past weeks, her brusque demeanor still as strong as ever, but when they were alone, or with Godric, she lightened and teased and seemed to radiate a sense of  _home_ and  _peace._  It was one of the best feelings he had ever felt, yet at the same time, utterly disconcerting.

Eric had been in this world for over a thousand years, he hadn't got to where he was by basking in the charms of pretty humans, no matter how talented or delicious or enjoyable they were… so he wasn't exactly sure why he was starting to  _now with her_. He closed his eyes, feeling the plane start descending; he could feel Godrics presence nearby also giving of an anticipatory feel, it was a thought for another time… but yet...

Despite his makers seeming depression after meeting and interacting with Sanna he had changed. It was subtle, but he now too orbited the girl, the considering looks he had given her were not lost on Eric.

There was something about her, her blood, her talents, just her. She was not human, not fully, Eric would bet a lot of money on that fact, but exactly what she was, he could not be sure yet. Godric did, of that he was also sure, but he had yet to see fit to inform Eric.

But he would, in time, of that much he was certain, and having Godric willing to live while being around the girl was probably the best outcome Eric could have hoped for, all things considered.

Yes, things were shaping up to be very good for the foreseeable future.

 

 

* * *

 

 

I had slept the entire flight back, in fact the only reason I woke up was from the frustrated stewardess light shaking my shoulder explaining that I would need to leave now. The next few minutes were pretty blurry as I shuffled off, and in the general direction of the luggage claim to get my things. After doing that and suffering through the obligatory 'WHERE IS MY BAG!' drama I staggered out of the area to encounter my two vampires. At this point in both my tired level and life, I will decline to think about why I called both of them mine, but yep, for right now it seemed a totally sufficient all-encompassing title.

"I've pulled up my car for us… Sanna you'll have to be in the back…" Eric said, almost as apologetic as he could sound without actually sounding sorry at all. No big surprise.

"It's fine, I'd want to stretch out as much as I can in that stupid car of yours anyways." I responded with completely false cheeriness as Eric took on an indignant look at the subtle insult to his car.

"Excellent, let's get going." Godric started before Eric could go off about my slight to his vehicle.

"Let's" I grabbed Godrics arm to escort me out as Eric fumed for a second before quickly following after us. I think in the future I would look back on his anger as a triumph, a sign that he actually did care about what I thought and felt. But for the moment, his display of irritability only added to my ammunition against him, and I'm almost sorry to say I used it against him often.

As we left, I took a moment to observe the profiles of both of the men of the car. Eric's, with a strong Scandinavian profile, all angles and elegance along with his traditional coloring of golden hair, and what once was probably fair skin. Godric, with his dark brown hair, pale skin with tattoos, both consented too and not, marring his skin with part of his history that scholars would kill for peeking out of his top. These two people have become the primary focus of my life in the past few days… I'm not ashamed to say that either.

Family at this point was a… if not foreign… then not a priority. Blood did not matter to me anymore, because if you had the luck to be reborn and get a second chance, then you learn that blood is not the end all be all of family, and despite what Gran would want me to think, Sookie and Jason weren't high on my 'important' list very often.

Now, I want to be clear, I do care for Sookie, she tried in her own way, and as a grown adult with experience, I could appreciate it, but I will never appreciate her just because in this life we happened to share DNA. Just like I don't really talk to Jason because he had made no real effort once I moved away and I could barely stand to converse with him if we were in the same room, let alone by choice. Unlike Sookie I was disinclined to see the best in people, I never have, and I never would, which is why I think I was ok with Eric and Godric, they were, despite their public faces, good people. Although at first I had not been convinced, Eric had inadvertently shown his true colors in softness, and Godric practically radiated understanding.

"I will be going to your business first, do what you need to do to check in." Eric sounded so reluctant to say it, but I was grateful that he didn't make me get there on my own.

"Thank you." Was all I could say, one had to remember that vampires never had to cater to humans if they didn't want to, and that my area was at least 20 minutes out of Eric's way.

As we pulled up to my place, I could see Ben eyeing us from inside. As I got out of the car, Godric followed me much to Eric's chagrin, not that he would ever admit to it, but he wasn't happy that he had to trust a human about security for his maker, it was obvious.

"Thanks for coming with me today" I welcomed Godric as we entered my establishment, the interior was designed for relaxation and was not only cozy, but painted soft hues of blue and white with trimmings of various complementary colors to identify areas of service.

"It's very peaceful in here." Godric commented as he observed the décor.

"Thanks!" I beamed at his observation "that's what I wanted, it's why I called it 'The Den' I wanted people to feel relaxed here."

"Interesting." He practically muttered as his eyes darted around further, taking in more than the superficial trimmings. Ben approached us warily, it wasn't that he had a problem with vampires, but he might when they were young and good looking and obviously with me was what I got from his mind.

"Su! We missed you around here! But don't worry, I held down the fort while you were in… Dallas right?" he already knew of course, he was just fishing for information at this point… but I had noticed a few patrons listening in, and it was for the benefit of a good cover story that I indulged him.

"Yes! I was there visiting with Sookie and Jason for a few days together, and what do you know, I run into this guy here," I jerked my head towards Godric "and he is close to a vampire I know here, and what do you know, he was about to relocate, so I offered to show him my place first!"

There, happy for new business, plausible story, and peppy enough that people would buy in if there were eavesdropping, as I knew for a fact the whole suicide/drama thing hadn't been made public news in Godrics case.

"Oh, that's great!" Ben responded with matching enthusiasm now apparently assured in some way that I wasn't in love with what even he could admit, a fine piece of male "Welcome to Shreveport!"

Godric nodded his thanks, not verbose at all, like the majority of his race, he mainly focused on most other things but Ben in somehow, not a rude way… I really wanted him to teach me how to do that. Smiling I gestured for Godric to follow me,

"For now I think I'm going to go work on the books in the back and Godric doesn't like crowds." I semi explained to Ben as I nearly bee-lined for the door to my office, still a bit unused to all of the different minds around me again after a vacation with mostly vampires.

"Oh great, I'll see you later then." Ben acquiesced, Heading back to the front after a few seconds as Godric followed me to the back.

"Finally!" I exclaimed as I shut the door, "Having walls in between really helps" I answered his unspoken question after his eyes had gone wide.

"Indeed." Was his succinct and boring reply "But now that we are away from prying ears and interested eyes… I would discuss something with you."

Godric had sat down in the tiny guest chair I had, head cocked and eyes calculating, yet still holding a small bit of warmth.

"And that would be?" My eyes narrowed and I sat down behind my cramped, paperwork filled, uninspiring desk.

"Your family"

"What about them?" I asked, on the very of becoming defensive.

"Who were they?" he demanded almost, definitely out of character a bit.

"Stackhouses, southerners, rednecks, the usual… why?" I asked, having never given much thought to my genealogy unlike some.

"Your gifts are extraordinary…" he started, and damn if I couldn't help but preen at that "but they are not unheard of…"

"Not unheard of?" I inquired after hearing that interesting tidbit.

"No, it has manifested in those known to carry Fae blood." Godric was deadly serious which kept me from laughing.

"You and your sister must be powerful descendants to both have been able to manifest these abilities, as weak as your blood tie is."

"So it's not like our mom was a fucking fairy then?" I confirmed, sarcasm only included because it was just ingrained at this point.

"Indeed, I would theorize you have less than 1/6th Fae blood, otherwise it would have been more obvious before now, particularly to myself and Eric." Godric didn't take his eyes off me as I absorbed what he was saying before blurting out the question that was eating me up

"So when you say Fae are we talking like… Seelie and Unseelie or more Tinkerbell?" I was actually pretty serious in wanting to know that, but Godric took on an amused countenance as he regarded me thoughtfully.

"Perhaps a bit of both…" he started pausing as he prepared to answer my question "that would be the easiest answer, Fairies are immensely powerful, humanoid beings for the most part, but they are known for their fickleness and beauty as well."

"So not totally all that lame… I can work with that, besides, it's not like I have anything but this stupid telepathy thing going on… do I?" I trailed off as Godrics face became grimmer.

"Had you never been exposed to the supernatural I would have said yes, however, you're inner light has been showing through more and more as of late. I suspect this to be from the large infusions of our blood triggering the more latent abilities." I became suddenly far more self-conscious

"I haven't noticed anything."

"Not the increased control of your gift? Had you not been part Fae I doubt you would have been able to make it all the way to the roof, as grievous as your injuries were, and… your ears have shifted slightly…" I gasped and immediately my hands flew to my ears feeling the tips, the shock that coursed through me when I found that instead of my old soft rounded ears, there at the tip were slight harder tips. It wasn't overly obvious I decided after finding a reflective surface to gawk into, but it most definitely would stand out should I ever again decide to wear an updo.

"What the fuck." I sighed out, dropping back into my seat and scrubbing at my face willing the last half hour to magically have been some strange dream. Godric simply sat across from me, observing with an inscrutable expression.

"It is quite surprising." He offered eventually "a true rarity, we thought them extinct, or at the very least very well hidden for a long time now."

"Great, so I've got more magical mojo in my DNA and the infusion of both of your blood has partially awakened it?"

"So it would seem, it is the most plausible theory." Godric agreed

"Well coming from you I'd say that's a pretty iron solid theory." I sighed again, completely over and under whelmed at the same time "and here all I really wanted to do tonight was paperwork." I looked at the mess of paper on my desk waiting for my attention with dismay feeling a slight headache work its way into existence.

"Eric and I will help and protect you, Sanna, if that eases your fears." He looked at me intently, his face unreadable but highly focused on me.

"Well we're all in this together aren't we?" I offered a small smile that he returned, his entire face lightening with the small gesture.

"I am pleased, then." He leaned back in the small chair as our conversation lapsed into the natural silence that occurs when something of deep importance has been discussed. I started looking over documents and glanced up occasionally to find his gaze unwaveringly on me.

Now I'm not 100% sure why this of all things tonight caused me to blush this time. But it did, so eventually I just focused solely on my work and stopped meeting his unnervingly focused eyes.

It was around 12pm when I left the office, my in-box significantly smaller and oversaw the breakdown of the place until the morning. Ben kept shooting glances my way, burning with curiosity and a hint of jealousy over Godric’s continued presence and our disappearance into my office. But like the true professional he was, made no mention. I would of course, be questioned at a later date, but his ability for picking the right timing for things was one of the reasons we got along so well.

Leaving was actually really fun, as it seems that Eric got his little flight ability from his maker, who in turn gave me a lift home, reducing the time to a matter of minutes… I was insanely jealous of this fact.

"I would say goodnight here Sanna. Please, think about what we discussed and come to us tomorrow, we will be waiting." I gave a nod in affirmation as Godric made his farewell before streaking away through the sky.

A fairy, part fairy becoming for of a fairy, a fucking  _fairy_. What even was my life? Letting myself into my apartment I was hit with a sense of both home… and  _not_  home. So much had happened between leaving and now that I felt like a stranger here. All my things were exactly as I left them, complete with the pile of laundry waiting to be done and the dishes I hadn't put away prior to leaving. But it was like looking at the space with entirely new eyes, mine but not mine, the same, yet different.

I had anticipated sleeping well tonight before Godric had seen fit to inform me of my family’s dirty little secret. Now dressing for bed, I felt oddly puppet like, just going through the motions. The more I had time to think of things the more I felt like a stranger in my own skin.

Brushing my teeth is what did me in, my bathroom mirror being right above the sink made it almost impossible not to take a look at myself. While I had known that vampire blood had streamlined my features, I hadn't yet truly seen the changes my appearance had undertaken because I hadn't known to look.

My ears were the most obvious, looking like a subtler version of the elf ears in Lord of the Rings. But my eyes had gained a sort of feline quality to then, fierce and gorgeous whereas before they were a good feature, but hardly remarkable. My skin practically glowed, taunt and smooth, its color akin to a golden peach that thousands would shell out thousands to obtain, a natural rosy blush highlighting it even more.

Small things that combined made me seem almost ethereal in a way, I had never been ugly in either life, but now I was  _stunning_ …any imperfection I had was gone.

And it left me feeling empty. For the second time ever I couldn't recognize myself. All the little human factors that made me… me, were gone. The tiny scar near my eye, the crease between my eyebrows, the small scattering of blackheads I never seemed to able to get rid of… all gone.

I left the bathroom feeling hollow and lay in bed, completely exhausted but unable to even close my eyes until I felt the first tears roll down the sides of my face. Squeezing them shut, I willed myself to stop, but the steady stream did not abate, and instead hiccupping sobs started to escape me and before I knew it my face was buried in a pillow while I tried to regain some sense of control.

It was going to be a long wait till tomorrow night.

 

* * *

 

 

Waking up at the crack of dawn after a restless night did little to help my mood. Looking around my apartment again it was obvious I hadn't been spending any amount of time here recently, and again the hollow feeling came back.

_This wasn't my life anymore._

I had bigger concerns now then running my little business and up keeping my living space, like not dying from the masses of supernatural beings flooding into my life. Sure, I had Eric and Godric, so I was arguably protected by some of the most powerful vampires around… but I wasn't blind to the target that put on my back.

I dressed mechanically and decided to spend the rest of the day at the café, it wouldn't help me to dwell on everything that was happening, and I could wait until I saw them tonight.

Getting to the café didn't fill me with the same feelings of pride and content it usually did but the familiarity of the work helped to ease my mind off less pleasant topics. The mindless chatter of people and their subsequent thoughts washed over me like white noise, and for once I enjoyed the sensation until I retreated back to my office to do payroll. That's how Ben found me.

"you sure had us all worried when you took off like that Su…" he drawled from the doorway as his eyes watched closely for my reaction "you ain't in any trouble with the local Vamps are ya?"  _please tell me she didn't go and get herself involved with those dead bastards._

"No, my sister needed my help in Dallas for a job she took, although I did meet quite a few of the local Vampire community while I was there." I looked right back and met his stare with a raise eyebrow "it  _was_  all rather sudden."

"so that vamp last night… new friend?"  _Friend my ass, I know he wants something from her that has to be why she's never here anymore, kid can't be that old, I could take care of it._

I tried to muffle my snort at even the thought of a human being able to take on Godric and win, it was ridiculous at best.

"Yeah, he relocated here recently; he wanted to see my business while he was around the area." Truth was always a far more effective lie than an outright falsehood. Ben didn't hold any particular love for the newly outed species, and he was to needlessly protective of me for his to have any knowledge of the new events in my life. It was sad, Ben was genuinely a good person and a great friend, and it hurt to know that I wouldn't be able to include him in this new stage.

"Well… you'll let me know if he's bothering you?"  _I get that she might not want to date me, but she can't be a fangbanger could she? She's too smart for that, not Su._

"You're a good friend Ben." I smiled at him without agreeing, I hated to commit to promises I wouldn't keep, he flushed a bit as he nodded and muttered his excuses, going back to watching the afternoon shift.

I found it hard to focus after that, mulling over the future. It had started to make more sense as I had been talking to Ben, how I couldn't include him in this new stage of my life I was starting.

It made perfect sense.

I had fundamentally changed over the course of these past few weeks, mentally and physically, and I wasn't the person I had tried to be anymore. ever since starting this new life, I had been clinging to the me that I had been before, and I could see now, this new me is never going to live the life I had had stolen from me far too early in my past life.

I was in a world with supernatural beings… hell, I practically  _was_  one myself. I had a vampire lover and was close with his maker, I had Sookie who was with a vampire and shared the gift of Telepathy.

I was Susana Stackhouse goddammit and I would no longer cling to the lingering personality and hang ups of a girl long since dead.

It was going to be hard, it was going to suck at certain points… but I decided right then I would own the shit out of these new developments. And this felt so freeing, it felt like I had been trying to squeeze into a box that didn't fit for so long that now I was free my entire being felt so light and free.

I left soon after my back office self-actualization breakthrough and went to the nearest park, soaking in the warm afternoon sun with a smile. The loss and freeing feeling still coursing through me with abandon and the sunlight re-energized me. I could hear around me the stupefied thoughts of men (and a few women) I dazzled because my Fae heritage was practically oozing out of me.

I made my way home still riding off the afternoons high and got ready for Fangtasia. My good mood had my mischievous side rearing its head. Normally I wouldn't show up until later in the night and besides that one time with Pam I generally went dressed sensibly, not for the club.

Tonight I was going to show up early. Tonight I was going to make every set of Fangs  _drop_. I was Susana 'Fucking' Stackhouse part Fae and Telepath, and I was going to own it.

A white lingerie set under a white mid-thigh flowing skirt and a fitted tank top and a dark green vest that couldn't zip over my boobs, but showed off my waist like 'whoa' and caused the tank to ride up, exposing a hint of stomach. I didn't shower, I knew the fact I had been in the sunlight for so long would linger on my skin. Instead I focused on my eye makeup, all smoky and seductive with deep red lipstick. My hair was simple, a date with my hairdryer and it was a nice sort of windswept, making me look almost wild. Dark brown ankle boots with a decent heel and a small purse for the essentials and I was off to the club at the respectable time of 9pm.

Things were in full swing when I got there, a packed house. Pam was, as usual, supervising the front door and when she saw me she gave me a slow once over before complementing me

"Well don't you just look so  _edible_ tonight Sanna" her voice dripping with seductive charm as she motioned for me to skip the door line.

“Takes one to know one Pam” I threw back, winking at her please expression before being rudely interrupted.

"Hey! Why's  _she_  so special huh?!" a girl screeched out from her group of friends, all dressed in the stereotypical black and PVC that was so prevalent in the scene, none of them had anticipated being made to wait so long.

"Quiet vermin." Pam sneered at her as I got to the door, the jealousy and hate rolling off the group who wouldn't be able to get in for quite some time was almost palpable.

"Well ain't you just the sour to my sweet." I observed as I gave her a smile just this side of feral. Pam threw back her head and actually laughed at that as she gave me a nod of approval before smirking at me,

"Just try not to break them." She said as she opened the door and let me in… wait… them?

I was still distracted with Pam’s comment, and therefore I supposed I missed the immediate attention I received as I entered but when I looked around the amount of eyes riveted on me by vampires was almost ridiculous. It was my turn to smirk then. I was firmly under the 'look but don't you ever fucking think of touching' protection of Eric Northman who was sprawled on his throne talking to Godric who sat on a slightly less ostentatious looking but similar sized chair next to him.

I stalked forward ignoring the protests of some of the clubbers who found my disregard for their space rude. When I got to the middle of the dance floor in front of the dais they still hadn't noticed me, distracted by the environment and their conversation I supposed. I cleared my throat at a normal volume,

"Is this a private conversation or do you have room for one more?" Ignoring the weird looks from the humans around me I watched as both Eric’s and Godric’s heads snapped towards me and simultaneously dropped their fangs. I continued walking up and got up on the dais (much to a number of club goers envy and dismay) with their attention absolutely riveted on me.

" _Sanna_ " Erics voice had dropped to a sexy, guttural tone that showcased his accent in all the best ways, his eyes burning and roving over me, I could  _almost_ feel my clothes coming off in his mind.

"Eric." I greeted almost nonchalantly as I then decided to go for a home run and make everyone in the bar hate me and sat on his lap facing Godric, his arms automatically coming around me, hands stroking at the sliver of skin exposed on my stomach. I looked up at him to find the tiniest hint of wonder in his expression before it was covered with lust.

"We were not expecting you until later Sana." Godric said smoothly, his accent also coming out in full force. His expression was an unchanged mask, but his eyes had taken on an edge that had me squirming on Eric’s lap from the intensity but unsure as to its meaning.

"I wanted to surprise you!" I playfully pouted, enjoying this more and more… reveling in the jealous stares and the attention of two very attractive men. Eric’s eyes were glued to where my bottom lip was jutting out

"Perhaps we should take this into my office _lover_ " Erics voice curled around the word in such a sinful way it made me shiver with anticipation, I was so getting laid. In my most innocent voice I looked up at him again, all wide questioning eyes while I brought my hand down to his thigh and squeezed.

"You think?"

The next moment I found myself sitting on his desk in his office being furiously kissed as my mind tried to catch up from his vampire speed.

"You're a temptress" he groaned as my shirt and bra were pulled down and my skirt was flipped up and cool fingers were probing around my underwear before sinking into my heat, my body already prepared

" _Sanna_ " he groaned as I clung to him, begging and crying for release from the inferno we found ourselves in. His fingers left causing me to gasp in displeasure before his dick immediately filled me turning the gasp into a moan.

"Eric!" was the only word I could form it seemed, as we began rutting like animals, furiously aiming for the pinnacle that was hurtling closer as we joined. My back was draped over the desk and on a particularly delicious thrust I let my head hang back in pleasure only to gasp from surprise instead of pleasure as I saw Godric standing by the closed door, his expression so intense I could see the wildly powerful and violent vampire he once had been shining through.

But it didn't matter much as the pleasure built and built, Eric groaning almost as mindlessly as me as we were slaves to it. It was then that Godric’s wild eyes locked with mine and my orgasm exploded as I cried out, nearly sobbing from the intensity with my eyes firmly fixed on my lovers maker as his progeny bit into me. The dark passion within egging mine on as he kept our gazes locked until Eric finished and moved to sit on his chair, taking me and placing me back onto his lap as he faced Godric, wicked grin spreading over his face.

"She's perfection, isn't she?" And while a part of me protested his wording with me being right there… the larger part preened as my muscles relaxed me back into him as he stroked my hair away from the bit on my neck before tonguing it. Godric prowled closer and closer, his eyes fixed on me, hi expression fierce

"Yes, indeed she is Eric…" he was standing in front of me now a hand reaching out to cup my cheek as the air grew thicker in the room again.

"Perfection."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say thank you to all of you who have taken the time to leave Kudo's or comments, it seriously means the world to me and is the whole reason why I will never leave this story unfinished, even if it takes me a while to post! You Guys Rock!!!


	14. Transition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short and simple, Author has writers block.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy the cute extra though? thanks for all the reads/comments/kudos!!!

The atmosphere in the room was like a drug.

Eric and I both in some sort of post orgasmic haze with Godric standing over us, a stabilizing force in the whirlwind of emotions swirling around the room as nothing was said.

To this thank a few months ago, I knew I wouldn’t have recognized myself now.

And yet… this was the most content I could remember being since… ever. 

Eric and I were similar in temperament; we egged each other on, or pissed each other off constantly, but, with Godric being with us, these past few days.  He was like a stabilizing agent, added to the mix to ensure stability. 

The calming eye in the center of a hurricane.

 

If Eric was an open flame, Godric was the soft heat of a thermal pool.  Him standing over us now, there was nothing sexy or erotic about it, but the gleam on his eyes, the subtle heat that was near tangible as his gaze raked over Eric and I.

Silently I held out my wrist to him, my eyes never leaving his face as I watched the faintest hints of emotion flash by in a near instant.

“I am very old, Sanna, I do not need any.” He gently took my wrist and started to guide it back to my side before my muscles gave protest, raising my arm right back up as I smiled.

“It’s not about need, Godric, what do you _want?”_ I asked, the ‘after sex’ husky tone of my voice causing Eric to shift, groaning as Godric's hand tightened, unmoving for a long minute looking first at me, then Eric.

I couldn’t see Eric’s face, but whatever was there seemed to tip Godric over the edge and the next thing my wrist was put down and his hand stroked at my neck.

“May I?” his accented voice a faint whisper next to my ear, groaning my head tilted to the side in assent before I felt the painful pinch of his fangs.

“Ahh!” I couldn’t help but groan, partially from the discomfort, but partially from Eric’s hand which had wandered down to start playing with my clit in a deliciously brutal tempo.

My hands both found their way to one of their heads it ground me before Godric pulled away and looked down at me, his eyes seeming to glow with new life as a few drops of blood clung to his lips.

But before he could lick them off, I felt Eric lean forward his lips claiming Godric's in a messy kiss right as the thin wire I had been hanging on to snapped and I came again to the vision of Eric and Godric lip locked with me between them.

Coming down from the high, I could feel the last few days catching up with me (and perhaps the blood loss…) as everything took on a dreamy quality.

My limbs felt heavy, and as Eric resumed his original seated position I found myself succumbing to sleep.

 

 

* * *

 

Looking down at Sanna in his arms, Eric couldn’t help being amused at her slumbering state.  Taking in her rumbled clothing and the two bites framing her neck… she had never looked better.

“I informed her of her heritage.” Godric stated quietly as he leaned back against the desk, also looking down at the little telepath they both were so enamored with.

Eric glanced down again, taking in the changes that had come to prominence as of a few days ago.  Sanna no longer looked as she had when he first met her, her features had sharpened, eyes tapered, coloring enhanced.  And her _scent_ … no… her _blood_ …

It was intoxicating.

He couldn’t help himself tonight, when she had appeared in such a complimentary outfit smelling like sunshine and _life_.  Looking up he noted Godric observing her as well.

“And how did she take it? Well I’m assuming?” he asked in a wry tone as he started to right her clothing and shift her into a better position.

Godrics smile was enough answer as he added

“She’s an interesting girl.” The small mischievous smile on his face a welcomed sight after what seemed like (and probably was) centuries.

“She’s that.” Eric agreed, idly stroking her hair now twisting a few strands into small braids.

“I feel… quite drawn to her.” Godric stated “not just for her blood, or _sarcasm_ …” he then reached forward, hands almost mimicking Eric’s as he carded them through her hair.

“Godric?” Eric had to be sure what he was saying now, because while he had no problems sharing between themselves, the lines would have to be made very clear.

“…it is nothing you need worry about, Eric.” His firm tone brokered no objections “it is for a much later time, for now, tell me about your life here.”

 

* * *

 

**EXTRA  - NOT ACTUALLY PLOT-**

*** _sometime in the not too distant future*_**

 

“You’re watching it with me.”

 

“No” Eric sighed for the hundredth time as he tried to ignore Sanna’s repeated (futile) pulls on his arm in the direction of the living room.

“But you _have_ too! How else am I _supposed_ to know if they got things right or not!” she whined, giving up the tugging and opting to drape herself over his back in dramatics.

“Get Godric to watch it with you.” He replied shortly before attempting once more to focus on his e-mails.

“It wouldn’t be the _same_!” she wailed “who else could say they watched Vikings with an actual _Viking!?”_ she continued to attempt to impede any chance for productive activities as he internally started to smile, by her tone he knew she was close to conceding… he just had to wait for…

“Fine!” _that_.

“I’ll do the thing.  Just _pleaaaase_ watch it with me?” her tone resigned as she accepted defeat before he swept her up in his arms.

“Oh Lover, you’re going to do ‘ _the thing’_ “ he mocked her term for it “and you’re going to like it.” He couldn’t keep the grin off his face as she glared up at him.

“You’re a cheat.” She huffed, her angry expression not _quite_ reaching her eyes that were gleaming in anticipation.

“No Lover,” he dropped onto the couch, keeping her in his lap while he copped a feel, grinning salaciously.

“I’m a _Viking._ ”


End file.
